Taming Tayuya
by NymphetamineOverdose
Summary: Tayuya is saved, but her attitude, mouth and morality is a problem for people in Konoha. So here is a S rank mission for Hatake Kakashi. Can he tame her and also involve himself with her past?
1. A Summer Misison

NOTE: Let's suppose that Tayuya didn't die, but was saved by Anko who pleaded Tsunade to give her a chance. Tayuya became free from Orochimaru and now is a ninja in Konoha. This story will be an odd pairing of Kakashi and Tayuya. Meh, hope you enjoy.

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It was a typical summer day in Konoha Village. The sun scorched every skin it touched and the owners of the skins complained like there was no tomorrow. Most people would prefer comfortable clothes that were short and cool, that was not troublesome to wear. That didn't really appeal to Hatake Kakashi who – as usual – insisted on his usual green vest and black long-sleeve shirt and pants with a mask pulled over his face, only revealing one eye, black and lazy, and reading "Icha Icha series" most of the time.

On this typical summer day, Kakashi was called to the Fifth Hokage's office. As he would do, in any typical day, he came in late, which Tsunade expected, although not-so-happily.

"I have a mission for you… and it can be as easy as a D-rank mission or its difficulty can exceed a S-rank mission," Tsunade said.

Kakashi stared at her blankly.

Tsunade continued. "You know of Tayuya, the jonin who used to be under Orochimaru," She asked, already knowing the answer to be a yes. "I'll get right to the point then. I don't know if you have ever spoken with her, but her language is quite… obscene, and she is a bit too hot tempered – sometimes even more than Naruto. And also…" Tsunade sighed. "She's been sleeping around quite a lot lately. Now that she's a jonin, there really is no way that anyone can tell her what to do… and ANBU does not exist to tame bad girls," Tsunade said.

Kakashi sighed. He knew what Tsunade was asking him to do. "Why me?" He asked.

"I was getting to that. Kakashi, you are an elite jonin who is good with dealing with people like her. Naruto, for one was under you. Tayuya, she is a lot like Naruto in many ways, I can tell. She puts up a tough act but like every person, she holds some kind of pain inside. Anko supported her, but she's away and probably won't come back for quite a while. You… you bring limits to people not brutally, but rather, strongly and efficiently where people learn from their mistakes, rather than to agonize over them."

Kakashi closed his book. "I see," He said.

"Will you do it?" Tsunade asked.

Kakashi smiled. "A mission is a mission no matter what the task is, Hokage-sama. I'll do what I must," He said.

Tsunade smiled. "I will be anticipating the results, then."

Kakashi nodded and turned to leave.

"By the way, Kakashi."

He turned.

"While the mission exists, she is practically like a student of yours. If she does not satisfy what you need," Tsunade chuckled. "Feel free to punish her. It should be quite interesting."

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Four years… It had been four years since the grip of the damned Orochimaru left her and she was finally free. Many things had changed since then. Tayuya is now a jonin of Konoha, bearing the mark of a leaf on her head protector. After her fatal fight with Shikamaru, she was nearly dead until she was miraculously saved by Anko who used to be at the same situation as Tayuya was. She listened to Anko's advice to come back to the light, although the damage had been done. Sasuke was forgiven and he was slowly readjusting to the home he loved and of course, Jiraiya's magnificent works were hitting the movie theatres more frequently. But if there is one thing that had not changed and will probably never change is… Tayuya's language.

Her alarm rings for the sun rise as Tayuya threw it across the room without any hesitation. "Shut the fuck up, god damn it…" She muttered, as she brushed her hand next to her.

Warm surface of a man's skin came in contact with her fingertips as her eyes widened in surprise. What the… She thought as she suddenly remembered. She looked next to her and found a brown-haired man sleeping like the dead with his naked back to her.

Ehh… Genma… She thought as she slowly sat up on her bed, her head pounding and aching. She muttered all the curses she knew in one quick breath before dragging her naked body into the shower.

She got drunk last night and apparently did it with Genma... again. It was like her eighth time just in the last two months and it was just damn great. Now people will start to think that there is something going on between them… except there really wasn't anything special going on and they could fuck themselves up in their room for all she cared. However, just the idea of people asking about their relationship was… rather troublesome. What was she going to tell them anyway?

I think he's hot so I'm fucking him… Uh, no not really… Just because he was hot wasn't a good enough reason for her to be doing anything with him… She had more self-control than that… unless she was drunk. And drunk was exactly what she was every time Genma – or whoever else – climbed in her bed with a gigantic erection. Actually, half of the things she did, she wouldn't be doing unless she was drunk.

But she had a reason to be drunk… and if not a reason, a damn good excuse.

When she was done doing everything necessary to make herself presentable to children, she headed to her room, where Genma was up now.

"Hey," He said, chewing on his little senbon stick that he frequently used to negate a kunai attack or whatever. His legs were wrapped in the blanket, his bare chest and abs packed with muscle and some scars from his missions. His blue bandana was wrapped around his head as usual.

"Hey," She replied simply. "I need you to kind of get out, I need to get dressed."

He shrugged and went out with the needle bit in his mouth, his movements showing no signs that his lips even touched alcohol… so maybe she was the only drunk one… the fucking perv…

Well, it didn't really matter. Who was she to refuse a night together with one of the most attractive jonin that Konoha had to offer? Actually, more than just one… eighth night was it? She had to admit… Genma was one of the best-looking man ninja in Konoha…

Tayuya shrugged the thought off as she dried off her hair which was a more red than deep pink for it was wet. Her foot lightly kicked a cold thing rolling worthlessly on the floor.

She stared at her horribly disfigured alarm clock ticking noisily by her foot. She always wondered how it was even still working. She threw it so many times, she couldn't even find a place where it wasn't dented.

"Hey, Tayuya, are you done?" Genma said, as he bust through the door.

Tayuya's instinct made her kick the nearest thing – her alarm clock to be precise – towards Genma. "Hell no, you shithead! Get out, I only have a towel on!" She yelled.

Genma caught the clock with ease and stared at her. "It's not like I am looking at something I've never seen before…" He muttered.

"OUT!" Tayuya yelled.

Genma bit on his senbon before muttering inaudible things as he went out the door.

Tayuya didn't know how she felt at the last comment Genma made… Damn this felt shitty… So why did she do it? Because she decided to get wasted.

After the troublesome morning, Genma literally ended up carrying Tayuya to where Shizune stayed. Her hangover today was unusually bad and it pissed her off severely.

"You should try to not drink so excessively… Tayuya," Shizune said, as she stared at Tayuya with weary eyes that clearly read I-am-sick-of-curing-your-stupid-hangovers.

Tayuya only made a grumpy face.

"I'm only doing this for you because you have that important call from Tsunade-sama," Shizune said. "I wonder why Tsunade-sama entrusts important mission to you… You probably go to your mission place and get drunk everyday… with the likes of people like…" Shizune turned her accusing gaze to Genma.

Genma stiffened. "I didn't do anything!" He defended.

"Uh-huh… you weren't even drunk, you dick head!" Tayuya said, tightening her hand to a fist.

"Tayuya, stay still; you're going to make me make you throw up!" Shizune yelled.

Tayuya got up. "Forget this, I'm gonna be late, and Hokage-sama won't like that much…" She said, thinking about last night.

It was about late afternoon when Genma came to tell her that the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade was requesting her presence in the morning. Tayuya had no clue why but she really didn't have much of an option. When the woman wants someone to do something, they'd better do it if they still want to be cremated with all limbs attached.

And then they went to the bar, and the got wasted… to be exact, she got wasted… and no more unnecessary details.

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"Eh… Hokage-sama, what business do I have here?" Tayuya asked.

Apparently, Tsunade didn't intend to speak to Tayuya alone, but have some… masked ninja share in on the conversation.

He was very strange in Tayuya's eyes. She figured out that this was Hatake Kakashi by the looks of him… and now she wanted to know why he's here with her.

"Tayuya, I know of your nature, but the way you speak, and act is becoming unacceptable. You are an honorable ninja of Konoha, and you should display that. As a jonin, it's a good experience to have a genin team of your own. You will help them grow and it also will benefit you, for it will make you more responsible."

Tayuya looked at Tsunade skeptically. "What do you mean, Tsu – er – Hokage-sama?" Tayuya asked, trying her best to not be foul-mouthed at least in front of the Fifth Hokage of Konoha. Why is she scolding her in front of another ninja?

I HATE GENIN KIDS!

Tsunade sighed. "You are now a jonin, Tayuya. That means that… you should have an experience to train genins. By the looks of your record, you have not done any of that… and you do not suit well to train the young genins anyway," She said.

Tayuya only looked at her, searching for a point in this whole thing.

"The purpose of me calling you here with Kakashi is… you will be an assistant under him in instructing a group of genins – and don't you look at me like that, Tayuya – to gain leadership abilities without necessarily being violent," Tsunade said. Tsunade opened her mouth before Tayuya could protest. "Don't complain about it, Tayuya. You need this and it would be for a month or two – depends on what Kakashi thinks – but I doubt it will be any longer than that."

At this point, Tayuya had to almost use her chakra to be able to hold her temper down. Train? With kids? Assistant? To Hatake Kakashi?

HELL NO

"Well, if there's no protest from Kakashi," Tsunade smirked, and searched him for any signs of objection.

None.

Damn him.

"Good. Let's hope you deal with this, Kakashi, Tayuya. Kakashi, restrain her with a leash if you have to. Now, if there are no further instructions or comments, you are both dismissed."

"Ugh, this is so shitty…" Tayuya mumbled under her breath, obviously not intending for Kakashi to hear her.

She thought her heart was having its own seizures when he stared at her with his lazy eye.

She thought he was going to maybe punch her or at least say something back to her in an intend to offend her but what he did and said nearly had the same effect anyway.

He smiled beneath his mask and ruffled her hair playfully. "Let's make this work," He said.

"Don't touch me…" Shithole… Dickhead… Shithead… Piece of shit… Bitch… Son of a bitch… She could have said any word listed or etc to finish her sentence, yet she stopped herself. Even she couldn't spit on a face of someone who smiled at her without ill intent. Or did he?

She dismissed the feeling as Kakashi walked off with his face buried behind a familiar red book, searching for the page he left off.

Some Ichi Ichi Series book… Tayuya thought.

To be brutally honest, she wanted to punch both the Fifth Hokage and Kakashi's face in. She didn't need this. Her life was going to suck.

My fourth summer in Konoha will be a piece-of-shit summer…

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	2. One Fucked Up Day

"Oy! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called happily as he spotted Kakashi.

Kakashi finally bothered to take his eyes off of his book to wave at Naruto. "Oh, Naruto!" He replied.

Naruto ran towards Kakashi and he gradually came to a stop when he spotted Tayuya. "Kakashi-sensei, what's she doing here?" He attempted to whisper with his loud-ass voice.

"I can hear you, freaking idiot," Tayuya said.

"Oh, she's training with me," Kakashi said.

"What? But she's a jonin! What training does a jonin need?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, more than you think…" Kakashi replied. "Anyway, how are your missions going?" He asked.

"Eh, not too difficult; there's nothing the future Hokage can't handle," Naruto said, proudly.

"Oh?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"What's with that look, sensei? It's true!" Naruto said, his temper as quick and short as Tayuya's.

"Okay, okay. Well, Naruto. I should be going; my team will yell at me for… being late again… or maybe I should just skip?" Kakashi's lazy eye shifted upwards in contemplation.

"SENSEI! IT'S SO OBVIOUS THAT YOU DID THIS TO US TOO!" Naruto screamed, almost causing both Tayuya and Kakashi to have internal ear bleeding.

"You dick head! I already have a headache and I don't need your screaming to hurt my damn ears too!" Tayuya said, as she pounded her fist on the blonde head.

"OW!" Naruto yelped, as sudden force of tears rushed to his eyes in a fraction of a second.

"Ahaha…" Kakashi gave a nervous laughter, scratching his head. "Of course I didn't… after all; you guys were my favorite-"

"That's bull!" Naruto said, massaging his tender spot.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata suddenly called, somewhere in the distance.

"Oy, Hinata!" Naruto waved frantically, forgetting all about the pain on his head… what a guy… "Sensei, hot woman, I really can't waste more time chatting. I have a super-cool mission to go to! Later!" That was it before he zoomed off in an inhuman speed, causing the dirt beneath him to rise up to Tayuya's waistline.

"Well…" Kakashi said, smiling a defeated smile.

"That freaking idiot," Tayuya said.

"Let's go to _our _mission now, should we?" He said.

Tayuya didn't feel the need to respond, so she simply trailed after him, muttering to herself how completely retarded this was. She hated kids. She hated Kakashi. And if there was a reason why, she'd gladly give it.

She reached a certain training area that had three pretty angry genins, flaring a murderous intent towards Kakashi who fulfilled his duty by being late for the thirtieth time in thirty practices.

"Heh. Look at who we have here," Kakashi said, motioning to Tayuya who looked at the genins like she was going to consume them. "There were some things we had to take care of and we had no choice so…"

Tayuya looked at Kakashi like he was on crack. What a shitty excuse…

The three genins weren't really listening at all. They were looking at Tayuya with a look that a helpless mouse had before a hungry cat, and when Kakashi noticed this, he stopped making up excuses.

"Well, I guess I'll introduce you all now…" He said.

There was a girl with exotic green hair, and her name was Haruko. The two boys were both blonde, one shorter than the other with plump features. The skinny one was Masato, and the shorter one was Honda. She listened warily to their likes, dislikes, dreams, and hobbies. Then it was Kakashi's turn to speak.

"Eh, Tsunade-sama introduced me earlier but I guess I don't mind doing that again," He said, drawing stick figures along the dirt with a small twig. "I am… Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream…" His gaze shifted upwards, as he said, "I have a few hobbies."

The genins gave him a weary gaze.

"What the _hell _kind of an introduction was that!" Tayuya said, irritated.

Kakashi shrugged. "Your turn," Was all he said.

Tayuya sighed. _Why am I doing this! _She screamed in her head. Oh yea, the Hokage pushed it. "My name is bitch-face and I like breaking little genins like you. Reason is because I hate your sensei. I have no dream and my hobbies are really, unnecessary to your knowledge," She said, with a sharp, pissed-off edge in her voice.

"She seems like a great person, no?" Kakashi said, smiling to his subordinates who looked at him with eyes of HOLY-SHIT-I-WANT-TO-GO-HOME-**NOW**. Kakashi didn't seem to notice that, or if he did, he ignored it completely. "Well anyway, we should probably get started. Today, you will master molding chakra to your feet, enabling you to walk on water and things."

"Uh… Kakashi-sensei?" Haruko tugged on Kakashi's sleeve.

"Mm?"

"Did you say 'master it' or-"

"Yes, that's what I said," Kakashi said.

"There's no way," Tayuya said. "Sure, there are sharp asses that get it right away but… that's not applicable to _everyone_, you should know that, old man. Or do you always treat your students like this?"

"That depends on the instructor. I'm sure with a sharp instructor like you, Tayuya," He paused to search Tayuya's face which lit up with surprise when his lazy glance turned as sharp as the edge of a kunai. "They will master it in a day, no?"

"What are you talking about? I-"

"The rest is up to you, then," Kakashi said, taking out his damned book again. "I'll drop by to check on them at about eight. And since I'm in charge of you for however long," Kakashi smiled rather happily. "There will be punishments."

"What the fuck are you talking about? What punishments?" Tayuya rebelled.

"Later," He disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"SENSEI!" All three kids called desperately.

Tayuya swore that if there was an egg dropped on her head, it would burn to black ashes in a fraction of a second. The genins slowly turned towards Tayuya who bit her lip to prevent profanity. Instead of cussing Kakashi out – which would be pointless – she looked at the genins. "Ugh, what are you looking at, shitheads? Get the hell over here," She said.

The genins hesitantly dragged their feet towards a strawberry-haired jonin that looked like she was going to eat them alive.

Tayuya felt dangerous. And damn right she should; these were helpless little genins, at the mercy of her temper. They had better not make it a worse day than it already is. "Chakra control?" She said, out loud.

The Honda boy nodded.

"Well then… you'd better do exactly as I say," Tayuya said, striding over to the beautiful blue water that seemed to be laughing at her face as she put her foot on it.

_What a fine day to waste with genin kids taught by a irresponsible bastard…_

Her foot sunk beneath the water, making a noisy splash that tickled her nose. "Shit fuck," She muttered under her breath. _Concentrate… concentrate… _She thought and her next step successfully drowned too. "What the fuck…" She mumbled.

"Is she really a jonin?" Haruko wondered out loud to Masato who giggled.

Tayuya glared at the girl. _I'll show you, little bitch… _She thought as she concentrated deeper. _Focus… the chakra to my foot… _Tayuya was walking on water!

The genins looked at her in wonder.

"Wow! She's walking on water!"

"She's cooler than Kakashi-sensei that only reads his stupid books all the time."

"Well, she _is _a jonin, you know… Isn't _this _much expected?" Masato finished.

_I hate this kid above all else but his teacher… _Tayuya thought, struggling to stay calm. She strode off of the water to the solid ground and motioned to Masato. "You try it now."

"You need to explain it to us first, Tayuya-sensei," He said.

Tayuya-sensei, huh? It sounded a bit strange to her. No one had called her sensei before. She was simply Tayuya, and she never thought she would have the term s_ensei _after her name. It wasn't a title she thought she would get used to or even liked. _Teaching what I know to other people… what a waste of knowledge…_

"It's pretty easy," Tayuya said. "Simply, concentrate your chakra to one part of your body – your feet to be accurate – and you know… it just… there really is no other explanation than that," She muttered carelessly.

Masato shrugged. "Doesn't sound too difficult…" He said with a proud grin and it made Tayuya's day when his foot penetrated the water's surface as easily as any other time, and that wasn't even the good part. He was so sure that he could do it, that when he failed, surprise caused him to lose his balance and _un_fortunately, he fell in the river with a splash as gallant as hell.

_Oh, _FUCK _yea…_

"That was disappointing," Tayuya said, after reconsidering _That's what I thought, motherfucker!_

The other two did no better – if not, worse – and time went on as fast as a racing horse did on a race. The sun seemed to be saying, _Haha, I'll just go faster to piss you off _and Tayuya wanted to blow it up. Tayuya pushed the kids to try more and more with random threats of violence (something like: _I'll fucken kill you! _Or _I'll drown you in a tub of shurikens!_) but their chakra was not infinite.

* * *

"I can't mold anymore chakra… I'm running out," Honda said,

"Me too, this is insane…" Haruko agreed.

"You guys are freaking lame!" Tayuya yelled. _Shit, what time is it? _She thought. 7:59. _Oh shit… I have one more minute till he-_

Poof! "Yo," Kakashi appeared, turning a page in his book.

"What the!" Tayuya looked at the clock again. Still, 7:59.

"How was training today?" He asked, his voice as laid back as ever.

"HOW WAS THE TRAINING, YOU ASK!" The genin kids exploded. "WELL, IT WENT JUST _GREAT, _KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Why don't you ask an orphaned boy why he's freaking crying!" Honda yelled.

"Why don't you ask a dying person how was his day!" Haruko added.

"Sensei, it was a living hell," Masato said.

Kakashi smiled. "That's good to hear. I would have expected no less. It was a punishment for you guys for hiding my precious book. Anyway, let me see how much you learned."

_Oh shit…_

Tayuya almost covered her eyes when she saw the genin kids fail miserably, except Masato, who did pretty well.

"Well, you guys did good. Go on home. Tayuya, I need to talk with you over some rather… delightful things," Kakashi said.

_Delightful for _you…

The kids trailed home, murmuring crap about… probably how Tayuya sucked at teaching, sucked at life, sucked at everything she did because she was mean to them. When they complained to Kakashi, she was pretty sure that they thought they had to deal with her for only a day. Oh how wrong they were…

Kakashi smiled. "So… I see that they kind of suck… and you know what _that_ means don't you?" Somehow, Tayuya knew that he was grinning evilly under his mask.

"Wait!" Tayuya yelled.

"Mm?"

"You said I had until 8:00!"

Kakashi idly gazed at the clock. "It's 8:10"

"What the fuck! You came at 7:59! I had… one more minute!"

Kakashi shrugged. "Oh well, you still didn't do what I asked you to. Now for your punishment…" Kakashi pushed his index finger on his chin, indicating that he was thinking thoughtfully… and he was going to enjoy it.

Tayuya slapped his shoulder. "WAIT a minute!" She yelled.

Kakashi looked at her again.

"You promise to show up at 8:00 and… it was a minute before but still! A shinobi has to be good with time and you-"

Kakashi poked her lips with his finger, and that was enough to silence her.

She was going to punch him for that when she saw his only visible eye, now looking at her with a gaze as sharp as a kunai. "Your excuse is worse than mine when I am late. So tell me, what were you exactly going to do in the remaining _minute_ that you had? Think of a better excuse maybe?"

Her voice became frozen inside of her. His lazy eye now held her own with a piercing gaze that he used when reading the thoughts of his enemies. It was apparently obvious that he didn't need his sharingan to read _her _thoughts… what she was thinking now. His eyes… searching… expecting an answer… something… _anything… _

A rather rhetorical question, no?

"Good, no complaints, then," Kakashi said, his eye returning to normal – meaning the lazy one.

Tayuya had no comeback or an excuse. What the fuck? Why did she go so dumb like that? How could a single stupid look from someone like _him _stun her until she felt like a frozen stone? _Fuck it… fuck it…_

"Eh, I can't think of a good enough punishment. Oh yes," He exclaimed and Tayuya could swear that she saw a bright light bulb on top of his head for a fraction of a second. "Hehehe…" He was… giggling?

What was he going to say? _Swim 8,000 laps in this pond! _Or _Run 900 laps around Konoha backwards! _Or, judging by his perverted-ness, _go have a_ _three-hour-fuck with the fattest man you can find…_

If it was the third case, Tayuya was seriously fucked – literally.

"Well, I guess this punishment won't be as severe since this is your first time. I'll let you decide out of these two. First one, cleaning the training grounds, the second…" He paused for a minute, thinking. "Or, second one… eh, I can't really think of one. How about you alphabetize my books in my library?"

Tayuya looked at him, both with anger and relief. "What the hell kind of a punishment are these! I expected something like… run 800 laps around Konoha or something!"

Somehow, Tayuya sensed him grinning beneath the mask. "I am sure you don't mind doing that… or any of the things you were thinking of."

Except the three-hour-fuck thing…

"So there are your two choices. Pick one."

"I'll pick up the field," Tayuya said, sighing. "I'm too tired to argue."

"Wise choice. My library is a mess," Kakashi said.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi… Tayuya swore that he was born to test her patience to the farthest level imagined. So his house was pretty tidy – unexpectedly. Come on, if a house was this clean, how bad could the library be… right?

The moment Tayuya opened the door to his so-called library, she wasn't too sure if she was in a farm house after series of hurricane or Hatake Kakashi's library. According to Kakashi, it was the library. According to Tayuya, it was a cradle of unearthly existence that obviously seemed to exist…

"Holy fuck!" Tayuya yelled. "You call this a fucking library!"

"Yup."

"Are you using a genjutsu on me!"

"Not really…" He answered casually.

"What the hell kind of a library look like a shitty pigpen that didn't get washed for eighty fucking years!" Tayuya yelled, her veins struggling to the surface of her forehead.

"Mine, obviously…"

"That's not the point! What the hell do you _do _with the extra time you have!"

"I read. See, this is why I don't like having people clean my place."

"Why did you even offer then? And like I had a choice! You said that the training areas were too clean! That was my original choice!"

He chuckled. "You got off unlucky. Punishment is still a punishment, right? After all, a ninja doesn't take back his – I mean _her – _words. Right?"

_Right. You suck…_

"Well, I think I'm gonna go rest a little. I had a tiresome day-"

"What tiresome day! If anyone's having a tiresome day, that would be non-other than _me_!"

"You asked for it. Good night, Tayuya. You know the way to your house right?" Then he left.

"That shitty bastard…" Tayuya muttered as she summoned her courage to look at the piles and piles of books stacked atop of each other. "How am I going to…" Then an idea popped in her head. She didn't have to do this by herself! Hell no! Maybe she could get help from her demons… after all, there was no law saying that ninjutsu can't be used outside of fighting purposes right?

Tayuya grinned. It wasn't going to be too hard… She took out her flute. Just when she finished forming complicated seals with her hand and opened her mouth to say anything –

"By the way, no summoning techniques in here,"

Tayuya felt as if an invisible energy vacuum suddenly sucked away all her energy. "WHAT!"

"Yup. No ninjutsu of any kind, including the summoning one. They make noises and I can't sleep."

"You've gotta be shitting me!"

"Nope."

Tayuya looked again at the mountain of books. Suddenly, they seemed much bigger than before. _Oh… for fuck's sake… _Tayuya thought of many possibilities including such a thing known as suicide. But the only possible solution she could think of was to pick up those books and organizing them onto shelves. _After I'm done, I swear… I'll kill him… _She thought to herself.

Majority of the books that lay before her were no doubt, the red-covered Ichi Ichi series. Tayuya was not interested in the contents not because she had the right mind, but because she had read them before. Actually, she owned a couple of these… Not the whole damn collection but three or four…that wasn't _too _bad right? Right. She wasn't all too surprised when she found things that were X-rated that were not in the Ichi Ichi collection. It was expected, actually. Some of the covers were more extreme than the others, and some of them – just even by looking at the cover – made the Ichi Ichi series look like a children's rhyming book.

_I don't have to wonder why he only brings the Ichi Ichi series with him… _Tayuya thought. _What kind of man is he? _Of course some men would ask Tayuya the same question – except she'd be a _woman _not a man – judging by what she read but it wasn't like they were anything close to what he owned. And there, Tsunade thought that it would be best if Tayuya learned how to behave from this man… "Oh come on, at least I'm not reading some shit like these," Tayuya mumbled, carelessly throwing them onto the shelves. Nonetheless, the books landed perfectly and neatly side by side. This isn't a ninjutsu so… no one can yell at her.

"Hey, be careful with those," Hatake Kakashi's voice said, from behind her.

Tayuya was so caught off guard that she dropped the bundle of another porn novels. When the hell did he get here? Why didn't she sense anything? What the FUCK?

"Aye… I just told you to be careful with those," Kakashi said, sighing.

"What the hell, man! You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry… but you really should be more careful."

"I thought you were going to sleep! Or if not, don't you have anything better to do than… sneaking up on your punished assistant?" Tayuya yelled.

"I guess not…" Kakashi said. He then picked up a random book off of his organized shelf. He scanned the whole book and a white paper fell out. "Oh good. You haven't found this yet."

"Well, what is it?"

"A very important thing to me."

"And that is?"

Kakashi didn't say anything. And actually for a split second, he looked a little… sad? "Nothing really," He said, trailing off. "Well, make sure you do a good job. I can think of harsher punishments, you know." He lifted his eye back to Tayuya to meet her what-the-hell gaze and went back out, not so quietly as he had came.

"What the hell… he came in here to get a little piece of paper? What is it, his precious porno poster?" Tayuya muttered as she continued to work. Not that it really mattered to her. All that really mattered to her right now was getting this thing done so she could get her precious sleep as well.

Oh… how was she supposed to finish all this in one night? Damn you, Hatake Kakashi… what a way to treat someone… is he trying to make her his enemy?

She ended up thinking of horrible ways to kill him. A sigh escaped her mouth as she thought of her next month or two with this rather messed up instructor or whatever the hell he was to her. If every day had to be spent with genins and every night had to be a sleepless night of foolish punishments, she could pretty much guarantee that it would be nothing short of hell.


	3. Mission OF The Past

**NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE! MUCHO IMPORTANTE!**

Yea... I don't speak Spanish, but that's not important. First of all, I'd like to make it clear that this IS rated M. The first little section in italics is kind of sexually explicit. Idk what came over me to write it but I have no intention of deleting it because I am lame like that. It probably is nothing if you read other M-rated fiction… because other people tend to get a lot more detailed than this but BUT if you don't like sex-describing stuff… the best suggestion is… don't read it. It's basically a scene where Tayuya lost her virginity to Sakon when she was still in the Sound Five, before it became the Sound Four. She was still… I guess mildly innocent back then… Idk I think I'm drunk…

* * *

_Tayuya could not do anything else but stare at him as he inched toward her, making the space between them smaller and smaller. Could it be that… Was she thinking the wrong things? Was she maybe just a little paranoid? Sakon was just Sakon… They've been in the same team ever since… a long ago and there was really nothing between them except arguing and brief moments of teamwork to complete certain missions. Never in her life was he this close. Never in her life did he look at her this way. Never in her life she thought he would want her this way. _

_"My little potty-mouth Tayuya," Sakon hissed in Tayuya's ear, making Tayuya feel like she was a wax melting by the heat of his breath. _

_"Sakon, you're making an ass out of yourself," She said, but she really made no attempt to stop him._

_Sakon didn't listen to her. "Shh," He said, he said gently, as his finger slowly slid down her neck, leaving a trail of invisible fire that burned vigorously. _

_Tayuya thought she couldn't breathe anymore. The heat was too much for her to bear. It was killing her. But she knew that she wanted more. The fire burned but she didn't want the fire only to linger on her neck. She wanted her body, her soul, and her heart all burn with Sakon's touch. She wanted to be… touched? Oh god… what is this feeling? One part of her screamed at Sakon's every movement, his every touch to get away from her; yet, a bigger part of her yearned for his hands to be exploring her everywhere. "Sakon… I… this is fucked up… we can't-"_

_He grinned evilly. "Your words and actions don't match," He said as his fingers brushed to her lips just before it reached her swelling breasts._

_Tayuya didn't know what to say. Normally she would have said _Get off, of me, you shithead! _But this was somehow different. Her voice stayed frozen in her throat and came out in soft moans as fire of Sakon's tongue scorched away at it._

_"Be a good little girl for once," He said, loosening her belt, as he kissed her roughly._

_Tayuya's belt fell to the floor._

_He stopped his kiss and looked at Tayuya who stood there, more vulnerable than she had ever been. "I don't like your clothes. They cover up too much of you. Especially without that belt, you just look fat," he joked. "I guess there is no choice, then," He said, grinning mischievously. He tugged her tan little uniform she wore downwards, revealing more of her shoulders. _

_Tayuya felt a little cold as her shoulders were revealed, and the cold was replaced by sweltering heat as Sakon did something with his lips or tongue or whatever. As he did this, he was still pulling at it, revealing more and more of her._

Thiscan't be happening… Kimimaro will kill us if he finds out about this… but… I-

_Her thoughts were interrupted by Sakon shoving her away. She landed on something plushy enough to call a bed. Before she could wonder why he even did that, Sakon climbed on her, more impatiently. "I'm sorry," He said, his eyes insane with lust, and grinning savagely. "I am getting a little impatient. I was going to take it slow and gentle, but I change my mind. I want to fuck you till you can't scream anymore."_

_With that, he reached into her shirt that was pulled down just above her breasts. His rough hands caressed her at first but his touch soon almost began to hurt after a tender second. _

_Tayuya knew that by strength alone, she could never win Sakon – after all, he was a man, and her a girl. Whether she fought or not, he would have his way._

_A soft moan broke out of her lips both in pain and unexplainable… pleasure? How could this pain feel good? _

_Sakon savored that moment for a little longer before completely tearing down her clothes completely, before flinging his own clothes off like a worthless piece of trash._

_Tayuya wanted to scream, but she kept her mouth closed._

_"You like this more than you should, don't you?" He asked mockingly. Before Tayuya could any protest, one of his fingers slid into her gently._

Oh my god, what is he doing?

_"You're more innocent than I thought, little whore," He said. "I never would have guessed that this would be your first time if I didn't know you enough," He intentionally moved his finger side to side rather roughly._

_"Ngh," Tayuya cried, unable to help herself._

_Clearly, Sakon was amused by this because he did it again to get the same reaction. "You like that, don't you?" He said, laughing._

Well what the **hell** do you think, dipshit?

_"I want to break it…"_

_"Don't…" Tayuya moaned out. "I'll kill you if you-"_

_"Too bad."_

_He slid his finger out, leaving her feeling rather cold. He bent her knees and took her legs apart._

_There was no point of arguing. He will always win in a physical battle, and it seemed that he had waited for this moment for quite a while. "Let's see who screams first," He said quickly before he slowly inserted his more than ready self into her._

_Tayuya felt as if her flesh beneath caught fire. When he reached deep enough to make it especially painful, a whimper was escaping her. Shit, when was it going to break? Knowing Sakon, he won't break it fast, he will savor every moment of her pain. _

_"Does it hurt?" He asked._

Of course it does you fucking monster!_ Her pain made her dumb. All she could do was scream. The searing pain burned in her, as her hands gripped the sheets so hard that her nails dug in her palm nonetheless. _

_He didn't stop. He pushed ever so slowly into her, grinning like a kid who just won a hundred lollipops. He seemed to have no intention of ever pulling out. He was enjoying this, Tayuya was very sure. It didn't help that his thing was bigger than what she would have imagined._

Of fucking shit, when will it end! _She screamed inside her head._

_"My, my Tayuya. You seem to be in pain. Try breathing."_

_"You… fucking piece of scum! Agh!"_

_"What's wrong? I thought you were enjoying this. Don't worry. This is the only time that it will ever hurt like this. The next time, it'll be a lot more fun for you, I'm sure."_

_"There… is no next time!" Tayuya yelled._

_Sakon laughed. "Whatever."_

_Then the pain became more bearable. _

_Sakon pulled out and Tayuya felt as if she could breathe better now. "It's the first time I've ever seen you in such… pain, Tayuya. Usually, you're invincible on the battlefield."_

That's what every men do to women. No matter what, they create some sort of pain. Usually that pain in the body and then the emotional I guess…_ Tayuya thought. "Shut up, asshole. If you're gonna do anything to me next time, do it right," Tayuya said, her voice clearly raspy and shaky._

_Sakon shrugged. _

_"Yeah, yeah, just don't get clingy like the other fifty billion women in this lifetime… not that I expect that from someone like you anyway," He said and left._

_Men think they know women but here is the truth. They know one thing and they don't know jack about the other. Sakon knew that women tend to get clingy and he acknowledged that Tayuya was a woman. That was the one thing he did know. The other, he never would have guessed unless he had some jutsu that had the power to look through the barriers that she had built around her heart. Nor did he even care. After all, it was all fun and games right?_

_Right.

* * *

_

Tayuya opened her eyes. For a moment, she thought she was in her bed, and then realized that she was… kind of not in her bed. Her back was uncomfortable, and what was beneath her was far from a squishy mattress. What supported her head was a pillow that smelled of someone else other than herself. Not an unpleasant smell, but just the fact that it smelled like someone else was enough to make her jerk awake.

Unfamiliar yet familiar surrounding made her wonder if she was drunk again but suddenly she remembered as her gaze turned to the piles of books that covered the floor.

_Oh shit…_

And _Oh shit _was exactly right.

She clearly remembered some unfinished business from last night – her punishment that is – and probably will be charged with some other punishment today. Wow… two bad days in a row… now that almost guarantees her two bad _months _in a row that she will have to put up with. Fucking punishments…

"Are you awake?" A voice loathed by Tayuya called.

Tayuya didn't answer right away. _Should I pretend to be sick? _He'd probably know anyway… Tayuya was not good at – scratch that – she _sucked_ at acting. After all, if Tayuya was good at acting at all, she wouldn't have become a ninja. She wouldn't have met Orochimaru… She wouldn't be assisting a great copy ninja who was as irresponsible as a drunken koala. She would have been a famous movie star loved by many. However, childish dreams rarely came true and here she was in a small village of Konoha instead of a big city, assisting a strange person instead of _having_ an assistant, and getting ready to train stupid genin kids that hated her instead of getting ready for a shoot for fans that loved her.

Her past didn't really matter to Kakashi who burst in, with a spoon and a frying pan to create hellish sounds unbearable to one's ears, thus almost causing her ear to bleed internally. He stopped eventually, but not because he was afraid of Tayuya's temper, but rather, he couldn't handle the sounds himself after a while. Completely oblivious to Tayuya's glare that clearly thirsted for his blood, he smiled and said, "Oh, you're awake."

"You'd have to be a fucking deaf-ass to _not _wake up from that!" Tayuya yelled.

"I'm glad you're not deaf. Anyway, it's morning."

"Yea… Since I'm not blind either, I can see that."

"Since I'm not blind either, I can see that you didn't really finish cleaning here."

Shit.

Before Tayuya had any time to make up an excuse, he spoke. "Not that I asked you to finish it by today either but…"

"Wait, I didn't have to do this by today?" Tayuya sparked up, relief washing over her. Then anger. "Why the _hell _didn't you say so! I could have stayed up all night doing this damn piece of shit!"

"I doubt that," Kakashi answered simply, his eye obviously indicating herself who was still sitting there, under the blanket.

For the first time in her life, Tayuya realized that she couldn't come up with a comeback. In fact, she should thank him for his kindness for letting her sleep warmly. However, her pride would be slaughtered if she uttered any part of the words "Thank you."

Kakashi didn't seem to care… as if he cared about _anything _at all… "Well, I guess you can take your time. And since you're a terrible teacher, I'll stick around today," He suddenly grinned. "You get to see my lovely face all day."

She could have punched him. "First of all (you shithead), I can't even _see _your face, and second, I don't _want _to."

"Don't say that," he said, as if he was saddened.

"Ugly asshole…" Tayuya muttered, grinning.

"Well, "Ugly Asshole" was nice enough to not let you freeze to death. I think you should head home and get ready to train our subordinates again."

Tayuya sighed. "Damn…"

* * *

As expected of an elite jonin who was fast enough to cut through lightening, Kakashi appeared on the training ground at least two hours later than Tayuya did.

"Yo."

"God dammit, why aren't you ever here on time!" Tayuya screamed.

"Sorry. I was distracted by a dragonfly who lost its way, so I helped the little thing out. It's not easy trying to find the right mother of a dragonfly, you know. They all look alike."

Okay. First of all, how can anyone tell if a fucking _dragonfly _was lost on its way, looking for its mother? If the first part doesn't make any sense, then every part after was bullshit. In other words, Kakashi's excuse was bullshit. And as expected of a person, if one of his excuses was bullshit, then every other excuse they give are…. You guessed it… BULLSHIT.

"You are a freakin liar, sensei!" Honda yelled.

Kakashi ignored his comment and glanced over to Tayuya. "Continue the chakra training."

Tayuya groaned. So he isn't staying today either…

"I guess I'll stay and watch what you are doing wrong," He said.

Oh… so he _is _staying…

"It's your students; you train them," Tayuya said.

"Tayuya, you have to remember that I'm in charge here. You have to get serious or a consequence will follow. If you can't even do this, I'll be sure to ask Hokage-sama to knock you back down to chuunin and observe next to Iruka."

A chuunin? HELL NO

With a _fuck you _glare, she asked him. "What the fuck do you want me to do?"

"Well… I want to see exactly what you told them to do."

Tayuya turned to the three genins that looked at her warily. "Uhh… yea… concentrate your chakra into your feet… Do exactly what I told you the other day."

As expected of them, they were soaked in a matter of seconds with little success following them. Oh come on… it wasn't really that hard… these little kids were freaking stupid… Or was it her that was explaining something wrong? That can't be. How else would she explain this? She caught a glimpse of her "instructor" and he failed to meet her expectation. Instead of watching her and the genins, he wa idly flipping through… some Make-out Violence.

_Stay and watch my ass… _Tayuya thought. There was little difference from yesterday, when he completely ditched her but what will this help? He was still just ignoring her.

* * *

Good for Tayuya though, by the end of the day, the genins were making a progress. Honda could last at least a minute and Haruko a little longer. To Tayuya's astonishment, Masato almost completely mastered it. Tayuya swore that she could have freakin cried. When she turned her wary gaze to Kakashi, he was staring at the direction of the three genins and her.

"You three are dismissed," He said to the three genins that cheered and raced home. "I'm not quite dome with you. After all, you are a _mission_, not a subordinate. You're stuck with me until I'm done with you."

"I kind of figured…" Tayuya said.

He shrugged. Then he dug his hands around his pocket, searching for something.

Only god knows what he's planning next. He was completely unreadable.

He made a little noise of triumph – which Tayuya caught herself almost giggling at – as he happily took his hand out again and opened up his palm. On his palm, was a little piece of candy that was a peach flavor.

Uh… huh?

"Eat it or something," He said.

"What?"

"Unless you don't want it… I bought it this morning while you were waiting with the kids."

Tayuya picked the candy out of his palm. When her fingers brushed against his palm, she thought that his hands were… manly? Rough? Gentle? How the fuck should she know? She thought his hands were a perfect size to hold her own and- "Thanks… I guess," She quickly dismissed the unnecessary thought.

To her surprise, he actually smiled a genuine smile. "There are punishments but also rewards. Every time you succeed, I will reward you with small things. I guess that's only fair."

"A candy is my reward?" Tayuya asked, laughing. To her own surprise, she was not angry or anything, she was… amused.

"Yup that's your reward," He said.

Tayuya melted the candy in her mouth. Sweet flavor of peach swirled in her mouth, and that was enough to brighten her day. When she looked up to Kakashi, suddenly he looked a lot different than a stupid fucking lazy slacker that only read porn books. His eye, although slanted in a lazy way, contained unfathomable emotion and hollow barrier that seemed to conceal something behind it. She could see the outlines of his face beneath the black mask, sharp and flawless.

_If only… I could pull that mask down just a bit… _"Why do you hide your face?" She asked.

He shrugged in his usual way. "I have good reasons. Don't forget to stop by to continue your punishment. I don't have anything to add on to that at this point," He said. Then… as he always did, he left.

The moment he disappeared from her view, Tayuya almost choked on her candy. What was _wrong _with her? Since when did she care about his stupid face? What was she charmed because he gave her a damn piece of candy? Did he mix some drug in the candy that made her think that he was anything more than an instructor? She had no fucking clue so she ran to her house where she rested until it wsa time to serve her punishment again in a hell hole called Kakashi's Library.

* * *

A door knocked softly as Kakashi answered it.

Tayuya really didn't care who the hell it was, so she kept on working. After all, if she didn't get this done, it just meant that she would have to come back until she did get it done.

There were voices of a teenage girl and occasional responses from Kakashi, but all Tayuya could hear was "mission" and "Sound Four."

So of course, she busted out the door. "What did you say?" Tayuya yelled.

Outside, stood Kakashi, and the girl training under the Hokage, known as Sakura or something.

"Tayuya, you weren't supposed to be peeping on us," Kakashi said, but his voice was not in the usual jocular tone. His voice was stern and low.

"I wasn't peeping, god dammit! What did you say! I heard Sound Four!"

"You heard wrong," Sakura said, smiling.

"Shut up, you bitch! What the _hell _did you say? I need to know!" Tayuya demanded. Sound Four… Tayuya was once a member of Sound Four, being the second strongest next to Sakon.

"Calm down, Tayuya," Kakashi said

Tayuya glared. "What the hell is this I'm hearing of Sound Four!"

"I have a mission and Sakura was briefly telling me about it-"

"And it has something to do with the Sound Four?"

"Tayuya," Kakashi said. "This is my mission and you will not interfere. It doesn't concern you anymore."

"That's easy for _you _to fucking say! I want to know what the hell is going on!"

"I haven't heard the details. I have to go to Hokage-sama. Anyway, you should be busy cleaning up my library anyway. Don't be a fool and cling onto things that don't matter to you right now."

Tayuya felt her rage exploding onto Kakashi. She moved her hair behind her and yanked her collar down to reveal her slender neck and a black seal imprinted onto the pale flesh. "Tell me it doesn't fucking matter… If they're active again, I am not safe and neither is Anko or that Uchiha kid," She said, her voice shaking with the effort to strain her anger.

Sakura flinched at the mention of the last name.

Kakashi looked at her sympathetically, then it turned icy. "No, it doesn't matter," He said, and disappeared with a puff of smoke. Sakura did the same, leaving only Tayuya to burn in anger and confusion.

They were _alive_? Or did they get replaced?

_Oh no… _She thought as her seal began to burn. This wasn't good… at all.

Sakon… was Sakon a live? Shit… what _if _he was a live? It can't matter to her right? _She _doesn't matter much to him so… _Fuck fuck fuck fuck god fucking damn it! _She screamed inside of her head. What did this mean? She wanted Sakon to be dead, but she also wanted him alive.

To put it in simple words, for the good of Konoha and the rest of the world, Sakon needed to be dead, but for her own desire and the core of her heart, he needed to be alive.


	4. Free

CAUTION: This chapter will contain boring/ important materials… yea… it's really boring though. Not much action takes place. Just a bunch of talking. By the way, thank you so much for encouraging words, everyone. I really didn't think anyone would actually like it since it's my first naruto fic… Heh. J Thank you very very much!

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Aw shit… She thought as she opened her eyes with a pounding headache. She felt nauseous and dizzy and she knew exactly why. If you guessed that she is having a hangover after excessive drinking from last night, you are absolutely correct. She never had a hangover this bad though. Her stomach somehow was able to take on the amount of alcohol she would drink and after feeling like a piece of shit in the morning, she would be fine for the rest of the day. She never vomited from hangovers.

Until now.

She retched and ran out of the bed as she felt things rush upward in her mouth. For some reason or another, this was not her house so she couldn't find the bathroom. Luckily, someone guided her to the bathroom where she threw up the malicious looking stuff into the toilet.

Nasty… Gross… I hate throwing up…

Tayuya collapsed on the toilet seat, breathing heavily from all the effort and heaving. Her head felt as if it was cracking in two and her stomach felt as if it had been pierced by four million shurikens. Her legs felt as if it was made of rubber when she tried to stand and even the smallest ounce of her strength put into her arm made it shake as if it was going to fall off and cease to be a limb of hers. She felt like a piece of shit lying on the ground for some unlucky kid to step on. If death was an option right now, she would gladly take it.

"Get up, you're not dead yet," A gentle voice said.

All the muscles in her neck worked to its limit in order for her to face the speaker, who was Kakashi.

"Shit… you were looking?" She said, weakly.

"I had no choice; it was happening right in front of me. Are you addicted to alcohol?" He asked.

"Maybe…" Tayuya said. Actually, she didn't really know, Was she?

Tayuya groaned as she felt horrible. Well sure, Kakashi was an irresponsible person, but no one deserve to look at other people fucking vomiting all over their toilet. However, the words "sorry" wouldn't come out. It instead came out as whispers of "Oh shit, oh shit…"

"Kakashi-sempai, Tsunade-sama called for you and Tayuya immediately," Shizune's voice rang outside of the bathroom.

"When… did she get here? Wait… where the hell am I?"

"On the toilet. No matter how sick you are, you can't call off Hokage-sama's call. Let Shizune help you," He said and left her there.

Shizune came in and rolled her eyes. "How did I know that you were in here throwing up," She said, in a voice a mother used when their child did something so predictable.

"Shut up…"

Shizune saw that Kakashi had already left to Tsunade's office. "So what does he look like?" She asked, excitedly.

"What are you talking about?" Tayuya said, wrinkling her nose in discomfort from laying on the toilet seat.

Shizune blushed as she whispered out the following words. "Well even Kakashi-sempai has to take his mask off when he's… you know… sleeping with someone?"

Tayuya flushed red. Just when Tayuya thought her stomach had calmed down a little, Shizune's statement triggered her gagging complex and Tayuya found herself regurgitating again.

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE TALKING ABOUT!

When Tayuya was finally able to calm her stomach down again, she looked at Shizune. "What on earth are you even talking about! He's my instructor, not a… yea, he's a instructor!" She yelled.

"You two didn't… really? You didn't get to see his face?"

"Hell no, dude! What the fuck! No! Just because I got drunk doesn't mean I have to fuck that night! I don't even remember fucking most of the time," She mumbled. Especially the ones with Genma…

Shizune's face was so red that Tayuya thought she was staring at a tomato so ripe that it would explode. What a prude… at age thirty freaking four… she really fit to be more fourteen than thirty four. She could fix up a man in any part of his body in an operation room and did not hesitate to pressure the groin area when a critical bleeding needed to be stopped (because it's the pressure point). She did not mind looking at eight-hundred men without their clothes on during physical examinations. Now put the same Shizune, take her to a mildly isolated place, and throw a man in there with her without a top on and she would crawl into a hole and try to hide with her face as red as… again a tomato so ripe that it can explode.

"Okay… okay… I don't need that much information. I just thought that you may have seen it… ANYWAY, why would you drink this much? I can't believe he let you drink…" She said, quickly changing the subject.

Uh… Did he let her drink? She couldn't remember. She couldn't recall anything that happened last night. She had extra heavy-load of alcohol in her system and all the memories were fuzzy and the pounding headache didn't help at all. Neither did staring at her own vomit.

Tayuya flushed the toilet and stood, with effort that she never thought was necessary for standing up. "Help me, Shizune. I can't remember anything. I had too much to drink."

"I'm only doing this because you need to see Tsunade-sama. Next time, I won't even pay attention to you," She said, sighing.

When Tayuya reached Tsunade's office, Tsunade was not so happy, and by the looks of it, Kakashi was scolded too for letting Tayuya drink.

"Oh why did you fix her up, Shizune? She should suffer much more than she did," Tsunade mumbled. Then she glanced over to Tayuya with her brown eyes that currently showed no warmth. "I believe that "fix up your attitude" also means stop your irresponsible drinking habits; not enhance them. Kakashi, what were you doing?"

Tayuya was angry at Kakashi but she saw that he was being scolded for something he didn't do. After all, Tayuya went to the bar by herself. When Shizune cured her hangover, Tayuya remembered last night so clearly that it actually hurt. "It's not his fault, Hokage-sama. He was with you and Sakura I think. I went to the bar by myself. Kakashi was the one who stopped me from… fucking – I mean sleeping – with some man."

Tsunade raised her eyebrow in surprise and Tayuya also caught Kakashi's profile tilted forty-five degrees to face her briefly – also in surprise. Shizune was clearly freaked out as Ton Ton gave a short cry of disbelief.

"What? Is there a law saying that I can't be truthful? I know I may not be the most moral person here but I don't mind telling the truth," Tayuya said.

Tsunade grinned. "So I guess maybe Kakashi watching over you wasn't such a bad idea after all huh?" That was more of a statement directed to herself but Tayuya answered in her head.

No, it was a bad idea after all.

"In any case though. Due to Kakashi's urgent mission, your assistance to him will be temporarily called off," She said, sipping her tea peacefully.

"It's about Sound Four isn't it? I want to go along," Tayuya said.

Tsunade almost choked on her tea. "No, you will not go with him. His mission is none of your concern, and plus although you are a jonin, you cannot go on this mission. It's not because you are not skilled enough. I don't plan to send either Anko or Sasuke either."

"I don't care! I… I want to make sure of someth-"

"Sound Four is behind you now," Tsunade said firmly. "If I were you, I'd stay the hell away from any mission that is far behind me."

"It's not that simple, dammit!" Tayuya growled. A stern hand landed on Tayuya's shoulder and pulled her back.

It was Kakashi, looking at her with his eye dark and dangerous. "No matter how angry you are, you will respect the Hokage if you are a shinobi of Konoha."

"My purpose of calling the two of you is done," Tsunade cut in with her voice sharp like the edge of a sword. "Kakashi, leave immediately and Tayuya, you will come back here with Anko and Sasuke. Go now, both of you," She said.

"When did Anko get back?" Tayuya asked.

"Last night."

Oh… no wonder she didn't know. She was drunk. Tayuya followed after Kakashi who strode out the door without even looking back or speaking to her. Only when they reached outside by the long stair-way that led to the rest of Konoha, did Kakashi speak.

"How are you feeling? You seem a bit shaken up," He said.

Tayuya stared at him blankly. "I don't know, how do you think I fucking feel?" She spat unpleasantly.

"If you follow me, you will be considered a missing nin. Keep that in mind. Tayuya, your duty is to Konoha, and I won't let you disregard that. Hokage-sama said that your assistance has to be called off but I don't see the need to do that. Watch over the genins and remember your punishment is still going on."

That wasn't important right now… at all.

What she was curious about was the content of his mission. Everyone knew that Kakashi was a damn good ninja that only went on top rank missions. If Tsunade was sending Kakashi to this mission, there should be a good reason why. But she wasn't going to ask him; it's the same as talking to a machine that only gave responses as vain as "It's a mission about the Sound Four." So instead, she decided to ask him a favor… that she wasn't sure that he would grant for her.

"Um…" Clearly, Tayuya was not used to asking for favors but what else could she do in this situation? "I need to ask you something. This mission… I don't know the contents but if you happen to see…" Tayuya's throat literally locked, and her voice ceased to pass her lips. She stared at the rail of the stairway. "Nevermind." For some reason, she couldn't ask this person to check if Sakon was alive. DUH she shouldn't ask… what good will come out of it even if anyone but herself knew about her relationship with Sakon? It'll probably be some joke topic between men who have been into her bed.

"Hey did you hear? This dude named Sakon was the one who popped her cherry."

Kakashi looked at her in a searching way, making her feel so uncomfortable that she wanted to summon the demons and hide behind them. He searched her eyes and she dropped her gaze. Even though, his gaze seemed to be burning a hole through her.

"Stop staring at me and leave, dammit… I forgot what I was going to say," Tayuya snapped so suddenly that Kakashi almost flinched.

Then Kakashi took out a roll of green ribbon and a pair of scissors. "Tayuya, look. I know that you don't feel comfortable but… well I guess this is the best illustration I can think of," He said as he stretched out a considerable length of the emerald ribbon. "See how it's connected?"

Well… duh?

Kakashi used the scissors to suddenly snip the piece off from the rest of the roll. Instead of holding onto the remaining ribbons, he let it roll down the steps. He held the ribbon close to her face and smiled. "See? It's not connected anymore. It's free and so are you. Yay!"

………What the hell? She couldn't help a small chuckle that forcefully broke out of her. God, how rediculous...

"So don't mind. Well I have to go," He said. He looked around for a place to throw the ribbon away but couldn't find any. "Ehh, throw this away for me please," He said and disappeared.

"You're not going after him, are you?" Sakura said, suddenly popping out of nowhere.

"It's not like I know where the hell he's even going."

"If you knew would you go?"

"Maybe. Hey, girl, bring Sasuke here. I don't know where he lives," Tayuya said, quickly reverting back to herself as she was known in Konoha – tough, dirty-mouthed, and rude.

Sakura didn't seem to mind. Actually, she probably could have danced. Tayuya thought she heard a HELL YEAH! From somewhere inside Sakura who stood there smiling pleasantly.

Tayuya stared at the green piece of ribbon in her hands. For some reason or another, she couldn't throw it away. It seemed to symbolize her freedom. She shoved it in her pocket, a little embarrassed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Tayuya reached Anko's small apartment, she was eating a bowl of instant-ramen.

"Hey, there, Tayuya-chan. I ripped these off of Naruto. Oh how he almost broke into tears giving these to me. I won a bet. These are quite good actually. Want some?"

So carefree and random as usual…

"Not really. I actually came here today for an important reason," Tayuya said.

"Really? What are you finally pregnant after a hot eightsome with-"

"No! I don't like eightsomes dammit! Hokage wants you!" Tayuya yelled, irritated.

"Damn why are you so cranky? Eh… I was enjoying these too… Well, if the Hokage is calling, then I'd better go. I hope it's not a mission… after all, I just came back yesterday," She mumbled quickly before putting on her usual tan jacket that Tayuya thought was just a nuisance since it was like 44507429857409 degrees outside.

When they reached Tsunade's office, Sakura and Sasuke was already there. Sasuke seemed to know why he was here. Sakura probably told him. For some reason, he was giving Tayuya the strangest look. What, was there pieces of rice stuck on her face? What the hell was he looking at?

"Good. All of you re here. Tayuya, you know already… but Anko, Sasuke. There is a situation that probably isn't a good news to any of you three standing here – especially you, Tayuya. For that, I will not send you three to any missions until this will be all cleared up," Tsunade said.

Anko guessed it already by seeing Tayuya and also Sasuke there. "Why? Orochimaru… is dead right?"

"According to a pervert known as Jiraiya, Orochimaru is dead… but for some reason or another, a group known as the Sound Four still is seen. They also seem to have some relationships with the Akatsuki. Kakashi was sent to investigate on this matter, and he will be back shortly," Tsunade looked directly at Tayuya.

"What? But it should be Sound Three since…" Anko looked at Tayuya.

"They probably recruited another member; which isn't good. Only skilled ones can be considered one of Orochimaru's Four Sound nin, correct?" Tsunade said.

Of course the question was directed to Tayuya. She was the only one who actually knew how the Sound Four functioned. "I guess you can say that," She said.

"That only means that we have one more strong enemy to deal with. I wasted too much time on the details. I called you here for you to hear this: Do not get involved in this. You three are among the most talented of shinobi in Konoha, however, It's just the best if none of you are involved in this at all. Plus, it will be dangerous."

"A shinobi can't fear what will happen to themselves! When Kakashi comes back, I will kick their ass!" Sasuke suddenly bellowed.

"Quiet!" Tsunade snapped, slamming her fist onto her desk, dented from so many punches she delivered with her monstrous strength (most of them because of Naruto). "This is an order from the Hokage. Don't try to argue with me!"

"Hokage-sama, we can't just watch-"

"Anko!" Tsunade cut Anko's words. "You should know better. You are responsible for making sure these two don't do anything rash. I'll make this a mission for you if needs to be. You are dismissed."

There was no way that the three of them could change Tsunade's decision so they just left her room.

Sasuke left, grumbling.

"Tayuya-chan?" Anko called Tayuya.

"What?"

Anko looked at her worriedly. "You knew about this before just now right?"

"Yea… I heard it yesterday. Anko, do you want to go out for a drink?" Tayuya asked.

"It's only noon, Tayuya," Anko said.

"So? We don't have any missions for a while, let's drink!" Tayuya said.

"I heard from somewhere that you were assisting Kakashi's genins?" Anko said.

"Don't change the subject! It's a weekend. No one trains on weekends!" Tayuya said, irritated. She was even more irritated when a certain fuzzy-eyebrow kid named Rock Lee jogged by, sweating heavily.

"You're mad aren't you?"

"Well, aren't you fucking mad? We sit here and do… nothing! What the hell is this?" Tayuya said, kicking a nearby pebble.

The pebble rolled to someone's foot.

When Tayuya looked at the owner of the foot, she flinched and almost had a heart failure. Her mind went blank for a split second as all of her sight came focusing onto the figure that stood in front of her.

Oh my god… Sakon? She thought.

With a puff of smoke, the man she dreamed about every night and the man she desired for more than anyone disappeared and the slightly more beautiful Uchiha Sasuke stood there, looking at her skeptically. "Just as I thought," He said.

Tayuya thought she was going to cry for a second, then she gained her sanity back. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? YOU SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!" She screamed, furiously. Did he think this was funny? How did he know what she was feeling? How? Was it the damn sharingan? How she wanted to rip those beautiful red eyes from its sockets…

"You want him alive, don't you?" He asked, mockingly.

Thousands of things she wanted to say rushed up all at once, clogging her throat. Her heart thumped so loudly that she thought entire Konoha could hear it.

"I should have known. You still feel attached to him don't you?"

"Shut the fuck up!" She managed to yell. "What the hell do you know?"

I was there with you sometimes. Sometimes when I walked through halls, I could hear you two playing around. I am sure it didn't mean nothing to you right?"

"Shut up! That's behind me now, you shithead!"

Sasuke smirked. "Don't betray Konoha because of that person. This village won't forgive you."

"Hey!" Anko cut in. "That's enough, brat! Go home," She said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Girls are all the same. I was just giving her a word of advice."

"She didn't ask for any. Now go," Anko said.

And so he did.

Anko turned to Tayuya. "What the hell is he talking about?" She asked.

Tayuya grinned bitterly. "I can tell you if I'm drunk enough. I'm broke by the way…" She said.

Anko didn't argue this time. She quietly turned her footsteps to the bar that they usually went to.

Tayuya walked along, her hands in her pocket. Something touched her hand inside her pocket and she took it out to look at it.

It was the green ribbon.

Tayuya put it back in her pocket.

Somehow, she didn't know why but she actually missed Kakashi just a little. It didn't make sense to her. She knew him for less than three days and all the time she spent time with him, she wanted to punch his face in. She didn't miss him enough to break down and cry or anything but enough to feel… maybe just a bit empty. However, the feeling vanished as she drank away at the bar. The more alcohol filled her system, the less she thought about Sakon and the less she thought about Hatake Kakashi. She poured alcohol into her mouth as if she was drinking precious water. She babbled stuff about Sakon to Anko. Then she concentrated on drinking more and more.

Suddenly everything was so laid back and comfortable. Tayuya felt pretty happy. This was the best part about being drunk. You don't really remember anything. You feel happy for no reason. You laugh and you don't know why.

You can also laugh about things that hurt you.

Was she addicted to alcohol?

No. She was addicted to the laughs it gave her.

If reality couldn't make her happy, alcohol can. Everyone wantsto be happy and Tayuya wasn't an exception.

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	5. Mission Failed

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune called urgently as she rushed into Tsunade's office.

Tsunade quickly hid her bottle of sake before shoving a book in front of her face which she was completely unaware that it was upside down.

Normally, Shizune would make quick remarks about how Tsunade should at least hold a book in a right way if she wanted to fake working but Shizune paid no attention to that. She was breathing hard as if she ran all the way up the Hokage tower from the Konoha gate. Sweat drenched her as her dark brown hair stuck to the sides of her face. "Tsunade-sama… There is trouble," She said.

"What trouble?" Tsunade asked, suddenly more alert.

"As you are aware, Namiashi Raido, Sarutobi Asuma, and Hyuuga Neji were on a mission together on defending the feudal lord. They have defeated the enemy and have completed their mission however… On the way to Konoha, they were attacked, and unfortunately, Asuma had not made it back. The other two are fatally wounded. It appears that they were ambushed by series of kunai and exploding tags," Shizune said.

Tsunade bent the hard cover of the book she was holding so forcefully that it broke. "Asuma was killed?" She asked.

"That is what the other two believe," Shizune said.

"What the hell attacked them?" Tsunade tried so hard to maintain her anger.

"Raido recognized one of them. It was the Sound Four," Shizune said.

"Shit, what on earth is Kakashi doing?"

"The attack was launched when Kakashi was assigned the mission with Tayuya, Tsunade-sama. Also… I think Kakashi-sempai may need some assistance,"

"Kakashi will be fine, there is a reason I sent him," Tsunade said.

"Tsunade-sama… Neji's byakugan was not able to detect them. Someone seems to have the ability to cloak themselves even from byakugan."

Tsunade stiffened a bit.

Neji was one of the best ninja that Konoha had. He was the number-one rookie of his grade in the academy, and was a genius that potentially surpassed the head family members of his clan. His byakugan was a powerful dojutsu bloodline limit that could rarely be avoided. How could they be cloaked from byakugan?

"Assemble Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino immediately. Also, send Sakura with them. Asuma may be in a critical condition like the other two. Don't let Naruto come along,"

Shizune left immediately after the command, leaving Tsunade to think about this rather sudden and confusing event.

* * *

A typical morning for Tayuya almost always started with a hangover. This morning was no exception for this eighteen-year-old jonin who was severely addicted to alcohol. Mornings felt like shit and shitty mornings almost always guarantees that the rest of the day will be a complete piece of shit as well. Even this morning, the sunlight pissed her off for being too bright and making her head hurt even more. The blanket was wrapped too tightly around her, and she violently tore it off of her. She then snapped her sight next to her to see… no Genma or any men. 

Well… at least one thing was good…

Her morning routine always consisted of: getting up feeling like crap, taking a much needed shower, and finally, finding Shizune who always threatened her to never cure the hangover again but makes her own reasons up as she cures it once again. Most of her reasons though had the name "Tsunade-sama" in it, which meant that the Fifth Hokage had kept on calling her up for dumb reasons… it was mostly to scold her for being drunk again.

This morning though, when Tayuya went to Shizune's place, Anko sat there, with Kurenai.

"Look who's here," Anko said. "How're you feeling, drunken monkey?"

"Really fucking great," Tayuya replied, her voice still drifted to an unpleasant realm of dreams.

Shizune sighed at the sight of her. "Go sit over there far away from Kurenai-san. Repulsive sight of vomiting doesn't help… upset stomach."

Tayuya trudged on to the seat far away from the pretty ninja with pretty red eyes. She collapsed on the chair and decided to think about things then decided against it after an approximately four seconds. Thinking made her head hurt.

Shizune went by Kurenai and Anko and whispered quick words to them that Tayuya couldn't hear –apparently didn't care – what she was saying.

Kurenai stiffened a little but nodded. She stood and Anko followed the move.

Tayuya warily gazed at Anko.

Anko looked at Tayuya. "You have to train some kids today, don't you? Come by afterwards, but don't expect any sake or anything. Yesterday was an exception but I don't feel that Kakashi-san should suffer more than he has to because of you," She said.

Tayuya didn't say anything.

Anko left with Kurenai and she was the only one there with Shizune who was reaching for a refreshing pill for drunks in one of her eighty thousand medical cupboards that dominated the upper walls of her… was there even a name for this room? The cupboard room? Ehh… not important… not important at all.

"Why were they here?" Tayuya asked.

"They have the same rights as you do. There is no law saying that I shouldn't treat normal patients in the morning before treating that lame hangover of yours," She said.

"That wasn't my point," Tayuya mumbled.

Shizune shrugged. She looked a little tired – maybe worried – as she gave Tayuya the pill with water.

"You look dead," Tayuya commented.

Shizune didn't say anything.

It was unnatural to have Shizune not scowling at her for being a drunk and it made Tayuya wonder if Shizune was under the influence of morphine or something. She didn't give much thought to it though. She swallowed her pills, got her treatment, and left to the training grounds to train the genin… _without _Kakashi this time.

The three genin looked a little beyond uncomfortable when they saw Tayuya appear on the training ground by herself. They knew about his mission… didn't they? They should… It seems that Kakashi never told them anything because when the genins came.

They looked around until Haruko turned to Tayuya. "Tayuya-sensei, where is Kakashi-sensei?"

"So I guess he never told you where he was going… damn it, now _I _have to be the one to do the troublesome explanation… He's off on a mission that may or may not take a while. Until he gets back, well… I'll be watching over you I guess… He asked me to," Tayuya mumbled.

The genins sighed as if they were old people who gave up on living or something.

"What the hell is up with _that_? You three should be grateful thatI am training you! Otherwise, you wouldn't be here! You'd be at your homes, sitting on your lazy-ass, eating shit like cake or something!" Tayuya yelled, the reason being her hangover more than her anger toward the three children that were shielding their ears from her voice.

"Well then, Tayuya-sensei? What are we training on today?" Masato asked, with the know-it-all look on his face.

This was supposed to be their first day of going on a mission. Kakashi, as usual delayed the time to start their mission and was not here at all for the genin's first mission. Not that it was his fault this time but… and even tough genin's D-rank missions were more annoying than dangerous… Tayuya wished he was here.

"We're doing a mission today. Go to the Hokage's office," she said.

The genins shared a moment of happiness for finally being assigned a mission, yet they were mildly disappointed when Tsunade wrecked their hopes of looking cool by assigning them to a mission where they had to build a fence around a herd of cattle for an old farmer living in a village near Konoha. What could they expect out of a D-rank mission though? D-rank is for beginner shinobi who still has much to learn about the importance of missions – although even the most patient S-rank ninja would probably get pissed off by even looking at the list of… lame missions. If they were expecting some action, they will not find any in a D-rank mission, which were loaded with things such as construction, babysitting and animal retrieval just because people tend to abuse their animals in a way that they do not know, and the animals go insane and run away. Some of the animals that Tayuya had seen, going back to their master… they looked like the death itself.

Tayuya really didn't know how it felt, doing a lame mission as a genin, for Orochimaru really had no time to assign missions such as "Rescue Dolly the cow." He was more interested in destroying Konoha, in which Tayuya's first and only mission assigned to her as a genin was a virtually an S-rank mission called "Let's destroy Konoha because Orochimaru is mad at the village for not letting him be the Fourth Hokage, and also, he's mildly crazy because he takes humans to experiment them to gain jutsus but the second part of the title must not be included when speaking to Orochimaru because then he'd end up killing her." Her whole life as a genin was a living failure because her one and only mission went to a failure.

Now, she stood here as a jonin, advising a D-rank mission that she had never been on. When she was first brought here by Anko, Tayuya needed time to heal. After the healing period came the Chuunin Exam in which Tayuya urged Anko to recommend her. Tayuya passed the exam along with four others out of the seventy contestants, and was promoted to a jonin just last year, where she only went to A-rank. There was no time for D-rank missions. Until now.

And she wished that she never had to do a D-rank mission ever again whether she was the advisor or not.

She was used to complex tactics and violent fights consisting of elite shinobi. When she had to build a fence around lazy cows that stood there like statues and wouldn't move their fat-ass out of her way where she needed to build, she thought she was going to explode. At least in A-rank missions, she actually got to kick some ass, but D-rank? Oh no… beating up these cows meant complaint to Tsunade and complaint to Tsunade meant she would be angry at Tayuya and Tsunade's anger triggers her monstrous strength to be used against Tayuya and Tsunade's monstrous strength being used against Tayuya meant Tayuya's death.

Tayuya had no idea why the genins insisted on provoking her even more. Haruko insisted on complaining on every chance she had on how smelly the farm was while Honda insisted on hitting his thumb with a hammer rather than the nails. Masato was also scowling at the other two, adding in how he shouldn't be wasting his time doing this kind of a mission.

Tayuya felt her chakra pressing her temper down. She couldn't explode on them… especially since they were not her own subordinates. They were Kakashi's who… well… could beat the hell out of her if he wanted to. She had no idea why he hadn't hit her at least a bit. Her language by itself was more than enough reason for Kakashi to hit her.

Damn that Kakashi… When was he coming? He only left yesterday but why won't he come back? If he was fast enough to cut through a freaking bolt of lightning, why couldn't he just get there, complete the mission, and get the hell back, and tell her if Sakon was alive or not? Tayuya, being a relatively rational person… to think of something as ridiculous as that, she really must be desperate. After all, a mission that is ranked above C, usually took more than three days.

She sank her hand in her pocket and felt something in it. So of course she took it out to find… the green piece of ribbon. As she stared at the fine pece of string made of soft cloth, a sudden pang of guilt hit her like an enraged wave against a watery cliff. She didn't even care about _his _safety… _But why the hell should I fucking care? _She objected in her head. So why should she feel guilty? There is no need to…and that was why she was so confused. She felt that she needed to without knowing why. Her thoughts for the rest of the day, constantly shifted between two things – two people – that only gave her trouble.

One was Sakon.

The other was Hatake Kakashi for reasons unknown to her.

The mission was a success as the farmer looked pleasingly at his new fence. He thanked them, saying that he didn't need to worry about the fence anymore. The genins thanked Tayuya and were dismissed while Tayuya headed to a certain copy ninja's house to clean up his porn book. Then she left to Anko's house in which Anko probably wanted to share a deep talk… which didn't happen much.

* * *

The mission. To pursue an elite enemy without them noticing you. A skill that is mandatory in order for one to call themselves a shinobi yet a skill so difficult to do in a perfect efficiency. A skill that Jiraiya only mastered so perfectly so he could go peeking on women…

That was most of the mission. Then he would gather information about them and when they prove to be too much of a danger, he must kill them completely. It did not sound as difficult as it actually was. Normally, a chuunin would be able to do such a job, but enemies that were under Orochimaru would prove to be different. Tayuya, Anko, and especially Sasuke easily proved that. Despite her rough language and some of her clumsiness, Tayuya showed no sign of weakness and was a ruthless fighter. Although cheerful, playful and sometimes slow to grasp the situation, Anko was a dangerous woman whose venomous attack is fatal even with just one try, and Sasuke, of course had almost caught up to his brother Itachi, who was feared by all who had heard of him.

Knowing this, Tsunade had sent Kakashi.

Kakashi knew that he was never up against an easy opponent knowing what kind of mission Tsunade usually gave him. But damn these four people… they were so well-cloaked that he could barely trace them even with the sharingan. Already, his nin-dogs were called to trace them. Pakkun, being the wisest of them had found them and warned Kakashi that there was a cloaking genius among them. Kakashi's sharingan wouldn't do him any good, so he covered it again, and had no choice but to rely on Pakkun's sense of smell. Even so, the smell was so faint, that even Pakkun faltered at times.

But no matter what these four did, this was Hatake Kakashi, the son of Hatake Sakumo, the man praised to surpass even the Legendary Sannins. Kakashi was the apprentice of the Fourth Hokage and now is known with his own identity of "copy ninja" mastering the sharingan better than most of the Uchihas. Even Ucihha Itachi, the most powerful of the Uchiha (partly because of the fact that he kind of massacred them all) admitted that Kakashi's talent with the Sharingan was exceptional. If he could master the sharingan, he could complete a mission like this.

Pakkun suddenly stopped. "It looks like they are taking a break. Their scent is lingering and the cloak is wearing off."

Kakashi nodded.

No one fooled Pakkun's nose, and when Kakashi was close enough to take a good look at them, they were… sleeping? Something wasn't right. Why would they fucking sleep? Were they _that _confident on their skill? He didn't think so.

That's why Kakashi was able to fend off a kunai flying straight towards his face as soon as he turned around. "Don't hide there like a coward, show yourself," Kakashi said, as if he were talking to a group of kids trying to ambush him (although in Kakashi's case, it might work).

A figure jumped off from the trees above. He had a proud grin on his face, and he was as pale as death. The longish hair covering his right eye was grey silver, and his lips were a strange green color that made Kakashi wonder if he had any sort of lizard's blood in him. "I told you, a kunai won't work on this guy," He said, his voice smooth but cold like a oil poured over ice.

Another figure came next to him. A girl this time. "Oh well, we have him surrounded now," She said, flinging her pretty golden hair behind her shoulder.

"Who are you guys?" Kakashi asked.

"You know already, don't you?" The boy said.

"Sound Four, I am assuming. And I also assume that you two are a bunshin. I don't sense the other two around," Kakashi said.

"Thank god we didn't really decide to stay and fight you, you would have kicked our ass, right Ryoko?" The boy said, still grinning.

The girl smirked.

"You don't need to be so sneaky, we don't mind telling you what our plans are… In fact, we don't even want a war," He said.

"Speak," Kakashi said, his voice calm but dangerous.

"We just want the other three that belongs together with us. That's all I think I feel like telling you. Don't bother catching up to us, because… we're not in Fire Country anymore. You won't know even if we told you," He said, almost mockingly.

"Well, we did our part… Sakon," Ryoko said, and they disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Kakashi stood still.

"Hey. Kakashi… do something. What are you gonna do?" Pakkun asked.

Kakashi answered with a short pause and then a shorter answer. "Return to Konoha," He said, before quickly taking off into the thick trees above.

Pakkun followed.

Turbulent thoughts were going through Kakashi's head. Surprisingly, the first person that flashed through his head was Tayuya. It should have been Sasuke, but it was Tayuya.

He vaguely remembered telling her that she is free. The ribbon illustration he showed her… he didn't want that to be a lie. At least, he didn't want to be the one that lied to her.

For some reason, it seemed that he shouldn't lie to her… ever. And for some other reason, he wanted Tayuya to be safe from them. Well… she _is _his attendant… and that it the reason. Yes, that is the reason.

Nothing more, nothing less.


	6. Death

NOTE: Okay... Sorry but this is a REALLY short chapter. I will make the next chapter longer, I promise... you people with AP summer work would understand, right? Heh... Anyway, here's a stupid chapter 6 up. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

"How was your day?" Anko asked, smiling a smile that a mother would on a typical day, when their child returned home from school

"What are you, my mother?" Tayuya said.

"Not really, I would never give birth to a daughter like you… Oh no," Anko said, jokingly.

"Why'd you call me here, woman? I need to clean up a certain douche bag's library," Tayuya said.

"Douche bag, my ass. Don't talk about him like that, he's impossible but he's a... respectable shinobi. Anyway, I called you here because… We really didn't finish talking. I'm broke from all the sake you freakin drank," Anko said.

"We talked about "my life" yesterday when I was drunk… Why the hell do I need to repeat myself?"

"Who asked you about repeating yourself? You told me nothing whatsoever. You told me that there was a guy named Sakon in your life and that he was a bag of douche… Then you passed out. That's not telling me anything whatsoever," Anko said.

Tayuya sighed. "I don't want to talk about it…" She said.

"What was Sasuke talking about? Sakon was the freaky-man's name, isn't it?"

_You want him alive, don't you? You still feel attached to him don't you? Don't betray Konoha because of that person. This village won't forgive you._

That damned Sasuke's words rang through her head. "Fuck it," Tayuya said.

"Unlike you, I don't fuck anything I can grab. II need to get this out of you. We need to tell the Fifth (Hokage) too if-"

"I'M NOT TELLING _ANYONE ANYTHING_, FUCKING DAMN IT!" Tayuya yelled.

Anko flinched at the sudden yelling from her.

"God… let me just go home… I had a shitty day," Tayuya's voice had lost her edge in them and had fallen into a pit of sadness.

Anko did not say much. She looked at her sympathetically and sighed. "Come on in, I won't ask you anything else," She said, moving out of the way of the door. "But answer me just this one thing; who is Sakon? It was the one that Sasuke transformed into, wasn't he?"

"Yes… he… well… he's nothing to me. At least, he should be. Does that answer your question?" Tayuya said.

Anko stood there for a moment, studying her. Then she nodded to only say "Yes, yes it does."

* * *

Tsunade looked to Kakashi, a little confused. "Back already? Did I misjudge the difficulty of this mission? I did not expect it to be so easy… that's why I sent you of all people."

Kakashi shook his head. "You did not misjudge. In fact, you should probably punish me. The mission was almost a complete failure," Kakashi said.

Tsunade's smile faded and her expression of _what-the-fuck _replaced it completely. "What did you say?"

"By the time I caught up to them, they were out of the Fire Country. I've been following a bunshin. It seems that they already knew that we will be tracking them down. They had no intention of covering up what their plans were. It was wise that you did not send any of the three that were linked with Orochimaru because the three of them are what they want. They said that if we gave them up, they won't start a war," Kakashi said.

"That probably means that they have enough force to start a war if they wanted to… isn't that right, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Kakashi, you keep your eyes on Tayuya at all times. Start training her again immediately. Tell Kurenai and Asuma to watch Anko and the same for Sakura and Naruto for Sasuke. We can't afford to lose those three. We've already…" Tsunade closed her eyes. "Lost so many."

Kakashi nodded. "I'll do what I must."

* * *

Tayuya returned to Kakashi's house to resume her cleaning duties. It sucked balls but it had to be done. She was a little more than half-way done now, which was good. She came to realize that not all of Kakashi's books were porn. Most of them were porn but there were some books that looked meaningful to read. A side of Kakashi that Tayuya never guessed that he had. Like it mattered… All she cared about was getting it done. She was carrying an arm-full of books when a sudden puff of smoke exploded in front of her and someone she'd been particularly waited for appeared out of nowhere.

"Yo," He said, so casually.

Tayuya dropped her books. "WHAT THE _FUCK _DO YOU MEAN, 'YO'? GOD DAMN, IT'S _YOUR _FUCKING HOUSE! CAN'T YOU JUST USE THE GOD DAMN DOOR? THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR! TO BE USED WHEN SOMEONE NEEDS TO COME IN!" She yelled.

"Why am I being yelled at for entering my own house?" He asked her.

She saw no need to answer him.

"Ah, I see. You made some progress in here. Well, you don't have to do it anymore if you don't want to. I think you learned your lesson by now.

WHAT? Hell no! She got this far and she was _not _gonna quit because this stupid fucker told her so (although this was _his _library).

"I'm _not _fucking quitting!" Tayuya yelled, as if she was gonna eat him alive.

"Uh… well you can continue too if you want to too I guess…" Kakashi answered. "Anyway, how did their first mission go?"

"Success… God, it was my first D-rank mission too. They _really… _suck."

He shrugged. "A mission is a mission. You must do it honorably."

Yeah… right… how exactly do you build a fucking _cow fence _so honorably?

Then Tayuya remembered that Kakashi was on a mission himself. Sakon… was he alive? Did he get to see him? "Why are you back so early?" Tayuya asked, hoping, that the conversation would lead Kakashi to talk about a certain man named Sakon.

"Oh, I failed that thing. My bad.; should have been more careful. Well, go home whenever you feel like. Don't do anything evil to my house, I'm gonna have a little chat with Sasuke. He owes me a plate of tango after all," He said.

"But… I want to hear about your mission…" Tayuya said.

"I don't want to talk about my failure," Kakashi said.

"Then did you fight any enemies?" Tayuya asked, getting more desperate for an answer. Was Sakon alive? Say it, damn it! JUST SAY IT!

"Well, sort of… I don't want Sasuke to wait for too long-"

"Since when did you fucking care about who the fuck waits for you for however fucking long! He waited for you since forever ago and it won't hurt to do it one more time!" Tayuya yelled.

Kakashi stared at her blankly. "And since when did you care about missions I go to?" He shot back.

Tayuya reached in her pocket and took out the green piece of ribbon. "You said I was free from them. I have nothing to do with them now, right? So why do you need to hide things about them from me? That's fucking bullshit!"

"I'm not trying to hide it from you because of that. A ninja does not reveal the contents of the mission so freely. The level of security of contents goes higher as the rank of the mission gets higher. Plus, you wanted information about the mission to link it to your past that is a broken link to you now. Am I wrong?"

She would have cherished that moment forever if she could answer "yes" but obviously, the answer was a big fat "No." He was exactly right, and she hated him for that. "Would it hurt to tell me just one little thing?" Tayuya asked.

Kakashi looked at her.

"Have you heard of a guy named Sakon? At all?"

Yes? No? Answer the fucking question, damn it! Say something!

"Yes, I've heard of him," He said, and started out the door.

Tayuya grabbed his arm to stop him.

He did not fight her. He didn't even look at her. Before she could even say anything at all, he spoke. "I know what you want to ask me, Tayuya. Again, his existence shouldn't matter to you. Firstly, you are a Konoha Shinobi now. Secondly, he's dead," Kakashi said, as he slowly turned his head towards her. His black gaze looked into her shocked brown ones as he said the next few words that sent Tayuya's thoughts into a turbulent storm. "I killed him while on the mission."

Tayuya's grip lost the force and Kakashi slowly pulled away to leave her alone.

So Sakon was dead... Oh... Okay... So why did Tayuya even care? Why? It was a good thing that a powerful enemy died, right? So why did she feel that a part of her heart was slowly being torn by the cruel hands of fate? Why did she want to murder Kakashi for killing Sakon? Aw hell, why the _fuck _was she crying?

Yes, she was crying. _Ashinobi must keep emotions on the inside no matter what the situation... to possess a heart that never shows tears. _

If breaking that rule had a death sentence as the punishment, she would have died only three times in her life. The day she was born, the day everyone died, and this day, where she cried for someone in Kakashi's library.


	7. I'm Sorry

Love was an act of foolishness.

She knew it all along.

Love meant giving your heart to someone just so they can fuck it up whenever they want to.

Love was for desperate losers that wanted temporary relief for their pain just to have their hearts stabbed out of their mind from the betrayal that always followed behind the smiles, the pleasure, and the warmth.

Love was such a thing that she never wanted to ever fall into.

Love _sucked._

So why did she do it?

Simple.

Love was the predator, and she was the prey who fell so vulnerable to its charm.

Love gave, and then it took it away.

She could feel this truth within her very flesh as she felt the loss of Sakon.

The bright sun was mocking her as it shined again in the morning. How she hated its warmth...

The morning... it actually starts today, without a pounding headache of a hangover. She would have rather woken with a hangover though. Anything was better than what she was feeling right now. Any kind of pain was better than the pain inside her heart that only worsened as she laid in her bed, waiting for it to heal.

Then the fucking door knocked.

She ignored it.

But the person knocking the door apparently didn't care if she was in mortal pain or not, because pretty soon, he or she started kicking it.

"What in the _fuck _do you want!" Tayuya screamed, still in her bed.

"The genins are waiting for you," Kakashi said, suddenly appearing in her room.

"What the hell, man? How did you get in here?" Tayuya said, irritated. She turned away from him, facing the wall.

"It's not hard to pick locks. Anyway, you are not being an exemplary kunoichi, still in bed while your subordinates are waiting for you," Kakashi said.

"Look who's talking..."

"One ninja that's never on time is enough for this village. And just because I can doesn't mean you can too. It's not like if I die, you'd die with me, right?" Kakashi said, ever so gladly, as if nothing happened last night.

"Go the fuck away; you're annoying," Tayuya said. She felt too weak to argue or scream.

"I guess I have no chice, then..." Kakashi said dutifully, just before he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bathroom.

"Hey, what are you-"

Kakashi dropped her in her tub. "I am quite sure you wouldn't want me to do anything further than this. I am bound to a mission to train you and I will do anything to get you out to the training field. If it means for me to strip you naked and wash you myself, I _would_ do it honorably," He said, and by the look from his face... his eye... he was _not _joking.

Tayuya stood up angrily before whipping the curtain shut in front of his face. "Get the fuck out," She said. She didn't feel anyone leave, and when she peeked through the openening in the curtain, holding a bar of soap to make him leave, she saw no one and the door was even closed.

He was a sneaky man... to leave without a noise.

In any case, Tayuya soaked herself in the pouring stream of water, pretending that the water would wash away her forbidden sorrow. It wasn't that Sakon's death shouldn't bother her, but it _couldn't _bother her. She _couldn't _feel sad or be in despair because it was forbidden. Because it was behind her, she could not.

After the steaming shower, she stepped outside, and nearly fainted when she saw Kakashi staring at her with a completely blank look on his face, sitting on her bed. "What on earth are you doing! If you are a genius ninja, have some common fucking sense that I'd have only a towel on me after a _shower_! My fucking god, what the hell are you doing, just sitting there, watching me!" Tayuya nearly screamed.

Kakashi shrugged and got off of her bed, yawning. "Took you long enough to come out, I'll step out now," He said, ever so simply.

"I don't need you waiting for me! I know how to get to the training ground! God dammit, get off of my back!" Tayuya yelled, as Kakashi closed the door behind him.

Tayuya was now furious. Who the hell did he think he was, her fucking guardian? In anycase, she finished dressing and found him waiting for her again. She didn't say anything to him though. She completely ignored him and went straight to the door.

He followed after her, not saying anything.

Tayuya started to speedwalk so she wouldn't have to deal with Kakashi. What a morning... first, she feels like shit and now she has someone who murdered her "love" - who also happened to be her mentor - treating her as if she was a freaking criminal on some home-arrest. However, she would have passed by the shitty morning okay if he hadn't asked her this stupid shitty question which poured a gallon of gasoline onto her ember of anger into a furious inferno that wanted to consume his lazy self.

"Are you angry at me?"

She froze in the middle of the stairs. _Was he kidding? _"Hm..." She said. "I don't know, what do you think?" She said, sounding rather calm.

Kakashi didn't say anything. He didn't even joke, which was weird. He would only look at her blankly. "That man... he meant more to you than just a comrade, wasn't he?"

Tayuya exploded. "WHAT IN THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW? WHY THE HELL DID YOU ASK? FIRST, YOU TELL ME THAT IT SHOULDN'T MATTER TO ME AND NOW YOU ARE ASKING ME SHITTY QUESTIONS! WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A PERSON ARE YOU? JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

Kakashi stared at her. "I know what it's like to lose important people. I asked because I cared. I am a pretty crappy person, actually... and I only wanted to help you," He said, answering all of her questions, yet he was still not joking.

Tayuya laughed. "How can you care about me, when you have _no _connection to me, whatsoever? I've known you for... not even a week and you tell me you understand; you tell me that you care; you tell me that you want to help," She paused for a sec. "That sounds like bullshit. You know nothing, you don't understand shit, and there's no way you can ever help me. Actually, there is a way that you can help. LEAVE ME _ALONE. _I am your fucking assistant, not your fucking wife or anything! Why the hell do you give a damn how I feel? If I don't show up? Punish me, damn it! Don't you enjoy punishing me? Don't you like toruring me!"

There was a brief flash of something like anger in his eye and he grabbed her wrist. "Don't say that," He said, quietly.

"WHY! Because it's the truth!"

"Perhaps you should rest for today, Tayuya."

Ah hell... she was sick of this. "YOU ASKED FOR IT, HATAKE KAKASHI!" Tayuya screamed. "WHAT KIND OF A PERSON SHOW UP IN FRONT OF A GIRL AFTER MURDERING THEIR... THEIR... their..." Tayuya could not go on. Just what was he to her anyway? What was _she _to _him_? A lover? A friend? A sex toy?

"What was he to you?" Kakashi asked. He wasn't mocking her. He wasn't asking just for th hell of it. He asked her as if he cared.

"Nothing." Tayuya answered, softly, her head looking down at the ground. _Someone that I loved. Someone that used me because of that. _

"Tayuya," Kakashi called.

"What the fuck do you want?"

Kakashi sighed. "Would it make you feel better if you talked about it?" He asked.

Tayuya looked up and caught Kakashi by surprize when her honey-brown eyes were filled with tears. "No! _You _killed him! I hate you!" She yelled. She knew that sounded rather childish but what else could she say?

"How about if you beat me until you feel better?"

Tayuya pushed him as if he was something disgusting, and ran down the stairs. "Get the hell away from me if you want to make me feel better," She said and Kakashi granted her wish.

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Kakashi told what happened to Tsunade who listened with great caution. Anko was there also.

After the whole thing, Tsunade rubbed her forehead tenderly with her fingertips. "I should have known that damn Orochimaru would try to conserve someone useful to him..."

"What do you mean, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

"That person, Sakon was the strongest of the Sound Four. He really should be dead... Afterall... Kankurou kind of... killed him in a horrible way. Yet Orochimaru, on the verge of death, decided that he didn't want to waste all the jutsus that he mastered. I am guessing that he gave some to Sakon after reviving him - only god knows how - and died before he could finish. Now, why Sakon wants Tayuya, Sasuke, and you, Anko... I do not know," Tsunade said.

"You also said something about them being aquainted with akatsuki," Kakashi said.

"It's what I've heard but who knows. Anyway, keep you eyes on Tayuya. Check on Sasuke and warn him too. Anko, you stay by Kurenai as much as you can," Tsunade said.

Anko sighed. "I am like thirty and I still need baby-sitters..."

"This is for your own good, Anko!" Tsuande said.

"Yes maam," Anko said.

Tsunade turned her eyes back to Kakashi. "Go, now. Don't let anything happen to Tayuya."

"Yes, hokage-sama."

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She hated her life.

She hated herself.

Perhaps Kakashi only did his job.

He _did _only do his job.

So, _he _was _right _and _she _was _wrong. _

But _she _was the one who felt the pain.

Staying in Konoha was not an option for now, so Tayuya went out and took a stroll in the woods; and by taking a stoll in the woods for ninjas meant furious jumps from tree to tree as if they were chasing something or were being chased. It felt nice, really. To have the wind rushing to your face, and just... moving forward. Nothing holding you back... freedom. God, she felt broken... Her heart was heavy as if it was chained by an eight-ton anchor and she was losing strength to break free and the only way for her now was to go down... down... down into the sea of black where you felt nothing. Why was is _this _painful? She thought he was dead all along. But if you think about it, in life, cruel did not mean not having anything to begin with. Cruelty... it's a word to describe the things that came and went; the things you held so dear suddenly taken away. There was no way you would miss something that you didn't have to begin with, right? It was the same for Tayuya's hope. She thought Sakon was _dead. _Just when there was a hope of him being alive... no, he _was _alive all along... that was until Kakashi killed him, not too long ago... Oh god... damn him. He was born to torture her.

But then again, if she thought back to her life, the way she lived... there was so many cruelty. What of her family? It wasn't that she never had one, but they were really... taken from her. And her friends? Same. Her career? It actually used to be a movie star. She wanted to be a movie star. Or even an actress. It wasn't her fault that she sucked. But she didn't have time to think about some other career... because right about then was when a monster known as kyuubi attacked her village and killed so many people. Her parents were among the dead. She was utterly alone and no one took care of her. Again, torn away. She was angry that _she _wasn't the one to kill the kyuubi. Stupid Yondaime of Konoha... but then again... there was on way that she could have even had a chance against such a monster. When Orochimaru came to her, he promised that she would be strong and she would gain the power she needed to accomplish her goal with some minor sacrifices. One was to be his servant and the other being Kimimaro's personal... slave. Bearing the cursed seal between her neck and shoulder, she worked as she was told. But she didn't love Kimimaro as she was supposed to. She let Kimimaro do anything he wanted to her. But her heart was on Sakon. He only messed around with Tayuya when Kimimaro wasn't around. He didn't even touch her when Kimimaro was. He had no clue that Tayuya closed her eyes and imagined Sakon on top of her everytime Kimimaro needed to fulfill his lust. That itself was... cruel.

Just when she thought things would be okay...

Just when she thought that she could live with a better purpose than to live as some sexual slave, and a part-time shinobi.

But it wasn't like things got much better in Konoha. She took the "evil" label off of her but the "whore" thing still remained. And she still felt no love from anyone.

Love? Was she kidding?

All these thoughts and the bitter memories flashed by her and Tayuya was not aware that she was out of Fire Country by the time the sun was setting. Would she be considered a missing-nin? The idea didn't seem so scary. Maybe she'll stop being a shinobi altogether and find somewhere else to live with a new job. Start over. She was only eighteen anyway. Maybe she can even get married to some rich man and just live quietly. Maybe she can be an actress... She smiled at the thought. _Yeah right..._

A tear escaped her eyes.

She felt so trapped. So... What the hell was she supposed to do?

"Well, hello," A pretty voice said.

Tayuya turned to see a pretty kunoichi about her age. Her yellow hair swayed in the wind, and her eyes were blue and icy.

Tayuya took out a kunai. "Who the hell are you?" She said, back in her ninja-mode.

"My, my... you need to cut down that language of yours, girl. Tayuya, was it? How convenient... I've been looking for you," She said.

Huh? What the... "Why?" Tayuya asked.

She chuckled. She dug in her pocket and took out a head protector that Tayuya was so familiar with. The one from the Hidden Village of Sound.

"What the fuck is that?" Tayuya asked, as if she didn't know the thing.

"I know that you have one of these, Tayuya dear. Come, follow me. The Village of Sound misses you."

"Where? I don't know what you're talking about. Stop talking to me. You have better things to do. and I don't know who the hell Tayuya is," Tayuya snapped.

"He told me that you were stubborn. I didn't know that you would play dumb and deny your identity though," The girl said.

He? Who was this "he" she was talking about? Tayuya was curious but she did not show that. Afterall, anyone from the Sound Village... what they were up to was never good and he didn't feel like going back to the hell that she came from. "I'm not denying anything. What? You wanna fight? Cuz I'm having a shitty day right now and I need some ass to kick," She said.

"No thank you. I'll get my ass beat if I fought you as I am now. But how about if we never have to fight? Be allies, perhaps?"

"I don't wanna be allies with you," Tayuya said.

The fake smile from her face failed her and she glared at Tayuya venomously. "Come with me before you regret it," She said.

"Now you show your true face, you bitch! I have no intentionof joining the Sound Village now or ever again. If you don't get the fuck out of my face, I swear i'll beat you half to death!" Tayuya said, dangerously.

Then something caught her from the behind and Tayuya was knocked off of the tree. This happeened so sudden that Tayuya didn't even think about breaking free. The thing holding her would not let go of her. The girl that was talking to her disappeared with a smoke. _A bunshin! _Tayuya thought. Then the real one was... the one dragging her down. Shit...

Tayuya took the full force of impact on the ground.

"Better you, than me," The girl said.

Tayuya could feel herself blacking out.

"Ryoko, I told you to becareful," A new voice joined in. But this voice was not new at all. It was the voice that Tayuya knew all too well. He looked at her, appearing more mature than when she last saw him. "My little potty-mouth Tayuya..." He said gently, touching her cheek. Oh how she had long for that touch... "How you have grown," He whispered in her ear. "You know, I haven't had you in awhile. Did you miss me too?" The voice... still the same - alittle deeper but still so much the same - and still mocking her... But that's who she had missed all these years.

She felt no confusion, only joy.

His face was so close to hers. She swore if she could only reach out, she could touch it, but the girl was holding her down and her vision was failing her. She tried to keep her eyes open to see him even for a second but the darkness took her over and she couldn't recall anything that happened.

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Kakashi always thought Tayuya was just another kunoichi girl. He didn't take special notice in her until she became his assistant. He thought it would be troublesome and his prediction was exactly right.

Yes, she was troublesome.

And that was why he was out here, looking for her. He thought that telling her that he had killed Sakon would calm her down to make his mission easier, but it backfired. But it wasn't just that. Immense amount of guilt shot through him as he brainstormed how much pain it must have caused her. He had told her that she was free from everything but what good did it do for her... for anyone at all when she was trapped in his lie? She was already caught in between things and here he was, making things worse for her. What should he say to her... "Sorry... my bad..."

That simply wouldn't do.

What if she was out of Fire Country already? What if the Sound Four had her?

After he had done briefing with Anko and Tsunade, he had been looking for her. Then after a failed attempt to find her in any sake bars, he heard from Naruto that he had seen Tayuya going out of Konoha. And that's when a single word came to him. _Shit._

He had to find her. He just _had _to.

Oh god... if only he was more honest... if only he didn't lie about Sakon's death... If only he could take it all back...

_God, Tayuya... I am so sorry... _


	8. Utter Confusion

Was he immortal or has she been lied to?

Tayuya found herself wondering.

It was so confusing but comforting to see him again. It felt so assuring that he was holding her as a husband would hold his bride as he flashed past the branches. It felt like one of those romantic movies where a cursed couple was escaping their cursed home to ind freedom, the man holding his beloved tightly in his arms - not that it _was _the case with another girl following closely behind but what the hell... You could believe whatever the hell you want when you are kind of laying there with half-a-conscience, right?

So with that belief, she continued to imagine things.

But no such imagination went on forever as her consciousness began to return within her and she now grasped the situation that she was placed in.

Sakon was alive.

That was enough to make her jerk awake, drawing Sakon's attention to her. "Finally awake?" He asked her.

Tayuya did not know what to say. Millions of things rushed to her throat but her mouth did not know how to form it into words. Her voice did little to cooperate. Maybe about thirty seconds later of just gawking at him, she finally said a very unromantic thing. "How are you alive, you shithead?"

Sakon chuckled. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

Tayuya pushed back her tears beginning to climb into her eyes again. "I asked you first," She said.

Sakon ran his finger through her hair, making her shiver. "Aren't you glad to see me?" He purred.

Dammit, how did he have the time - or reflexes, rather - to do this to her and watch out for the tree branches at the same time?

"Stop that," Tayuya said, against her will. What in the hell kind of question was _Aren't you glad to see me? _Why doesn't he go up to a freaking beggar who starved for three years, offer him a delicious meal and ask him "Aren't you glad to eat?" God dammit, of _course _she was fucking glad to see him! _He _was the reason for her sorrow! _He _was the reason that she drank and slept with all those men, thinking it was him! _He _was the one she missed the whole entire time and what does he have to say other than "Aren't you glad to see me?"

Ryoko looked at them sharply. "Sakon, focus on trying to get to our area. Mess around later!" And "Mess around later" meant with _her, _not Tayuya.

"We can't get there tonight," Sakon said. "It's kind of far. But isn't it funny? I told that copy ninja - Hatake Kakashi, was it? I told him that I'd be wanting the likes of her," Sakon gave Tayuya a little squeeze as he said this. "And all he does is let her walk around outside of Fire Country all by herself. Maybe he's not as great as people say he is," Sakon said, mockingly in which Tayuya silently agreed.

Tayuya just wanted to go back to sleep that way but a lingering question did not leave her brain. What was he doing here, and where was he taking her? Now that Orochimaru was dead, what else did he possibly want? And who was this Ryoko bitch? Was she Tayuya's replacement for the Sound Four?

Then all of a sudden, she felt a presence. The other two must have too because hey suddenly stopped. "Aye... aye..." Ryoko muttered. "Sakon, we have an enemy behind us," She said.

"It's that copy-nin," Sakon said, with a clearly annoyed expression on his face.

Kakashi? Now what in the hell was he doing, chasing her? And how did he catch up so quickly? Like that mattered...

"We'll have to deal with him one way or the other," Ryoko said.

"Hell no, we'll get killed. This isn't one of those simple annoying bugs, we're talking here. My curse seal level two isn't enough to defeat him... Well, unless, of course..." Sakon's gaze then trailed to Tayuya and she knew exactly why.

A sense of alarm rang through Tayuya. Wait a minute... she didn't want to attack Kakashi... It was true that she was angry at him but she never wantd to _fight _him till _death... _And plus, with all that jazz about her being free meant not activating her curse seal at all. She was a jonin of Konohagakure now... Oh god, she was so confused. "I can't help you kill my comrade," She said.

Sakon smirked as if he was expecting her to say so. "You know, I need you to be here with me. You were once _my _comrade as well, no? And you and only the other two possess the _gift. _When all of us gather again, we can continue as Sound Four," Sakon said.

Tayuya knew that the other two was Anko and Sasuke. "But what about _her_?" Tayuya asked, pointing at Ryoko.

"Only Orochimaru-sama can give these _gifts, _you know. Since he's dead, only the privileged three of you can learn the ultimate jutsu," Sakon said. "And you, are the most important piece here, since you already possess the power of the North Gate. It makes things much easier," Sakon said.

"I won't join you," Tayuya said, the strength behind her voice surprising even herself. Wow... was she _that _protective of Konoha? Maybe... maybe not. But this rather useless contemplation ended as Sakon firmly gripped her shoulder.

"Don't betray us again, Tayuya," Sakon said, his voice stern and quite angry.

"You don't understand, Sakon!" Tayuya knocked his hands off of her shoulder. "Konoha is my new home... There's no going back for me. Even if it meant to... to..." To fight him. Tayuya cursed the fate. To have the person she'd been yearning for all this time and now to fight him on the oppsite battle grounds... Oh god... Why didn't she think of this before?

"I don't think you grasp the situation here," Ryoko said, sneering. "There's two of us and one of you. You may be able to defeat me but you were second to Sakon here, wern't you?"

Tayuya jerked back and took out a kunai. She sensed Kakashi's presence much closer now - and only god knows how he caught up so quickly - and the others must have too since they looked more uncomfortable. "Not if Kakashi gets here before you take me," Tayuya said. She said this in a mere bravado, as her heart was aching at the thought of fighting Sakon. This was sheer cruelty. It felt as if her heart was tearing asunder yet if she was a shinobi, she ought to act like one and deal with it within herself.

"What's this? Have you suddenly realized that we were your enemies?" Ryoko said.

"I was not fully conscious, thanks to you for dropping me at such a height," Tayuya said.

"Your _very _welcome," Ryoko said as she also readied a kunai.

"Ryoko," Sakon called, lowering her raised arm. She glared furiously, but Sakon was stronger.

"Why, Tayuya?" He asked, with his voice sounding... almost hurt.

This startled Tayuya. This was Sakon, who always bad mouthed his opponents. This was Sakon who mocked her and teased her even as he was fucking her. This was Sakon who did not settle for words, but rather took things physically, and this was Sakon who didn't give a damn about how Tayuya even felt about him. Now he stood there, taller and broader than he had been, with eyes that were hurt and lips that moved with no voice to speak the words. She thought she was seeing things. Either that, or he was casting a genjutsu on her. But he didn't. Damn him to hell. Now she felt emotion choking her.

This moment was broken by Ryoko. "Shit, Sakon, we have to get going! That other ninja is too close!" She said, tugging his sleeve.

Sakon's eyes completely changed into his usual cold state as he looked back to Ryoko. "I'm gonna kill him," He said, his voice as still as the quiet ocean just before a turbulent storm.

Why Tayuya felt a boulder crush her insides she didn't know, yet she found herself screaming, "You will not kill him!" As the kunai in her hands shot to Sakon. Why or how that happened, she could not understand since defending Kakashi over _Sakon _was unthinkable and she was completely unaware of _this _ever happening. What was _wrong _with her?

Ryoko's kunai met with Tayuya's on the way to Sakon, making them plunge to the ground. "What are you doing, you bitch!" She yelled.

Uh oh... Well _that _was uncalled for... To be honest, Tayuya wanted to ask that question herself. _What am I doing, me bitch? _But that seemed pretty pointless. In these situations, where you don't know how to act, with angry people surrounding you there is an ancient art that many people use. In the situation where you do something offensive and you are walled with two people that pretty much want to kill the shit out of you, there is only one method in which you'll have a chance of surviving.

You run your ass off.

And Tayuya did just that.

The other two, being pretty intelligent beings themselves, decided to chase her.

Tayuya was surprized how fast Sakon had gotten. In the old days, she could out-run him in any match but she wasn't so sure anymore as he began to close the gap between him and her.

"Wait, god dammit! I want to say something to you!" He yelled.

In desperation, Tayuya attached an exploding tag on another kunai and threw it to where Sakon will stand in about two seconds, and Sakon fended it with his own kunai, making it explode in mid-air. It was an advantage for Tayuya still, since he couldn't see where she was going for awhile... So Tayuya took a wild turn to confuse him but she nearly shrieked as she saw Ryoko in front of her, who leapt and punched her stomach. If Tayuya had eaten at all today, she would have puked but she didn't. Tayuya recovered quickly and kicked Ryoko in the face, and with a short yelp, she flew off. How in the hell did she get there before her! To be honest, she didn't care. Dead branches kept on catching her strawberry-haired color hair as decoration but she could care less right now. The pain on her scalp was nothing compared to the hell that awaited for her. She turned her pace towards Konoha where she'd meet Kakashi quicker. It was strange because he was the last person she wanted to see on earth just about two minutes ago and now here she was, desperate to find him.

That exploding tag must have been the most ingenious thing ever since Tayuya had now lost them. A bitter feeling filled her as she thought about what had happened. The feeling... the emptiness... it wore her out. How she dreamed to taste his lips again, how she could have died to feel his embrace again, and how she would _kill _to be his woman, to be with him... But to betray Konoha... Whether Tayuya had a good life in Konoha or not, the village gave her a second chance. It was _her _fault that she drank and "whored" around. Plus, Anko believed that Tayuya was completely faithful to Konohagakure. Anko, who saved her, and who connected and understood her like a big sister, and a mother. And for some reason or another, killing _Kakashi _to be with Sakon was not as appealing as it should have been. In fact, she loathed the idea. Although lazy and inconsiderate, he _was _her comrade and much more... well... not _that _much more... Was being her mentor for about a week _much more_?

Only when she stopped for a breath did she notice that her legs were trembling quite violently. She attempted to calm herself down and failed miserably when she saw her arms shaking like a type five earthquake. Damn it, why on _hell _was she shaking like this? This was not good... _Not good. _

She reached in her pocket to see if she had any soldier pills to give her some energy but she only found a random string of green ribbon that Kakashi had given her earlier on. After sighing miserably, she used it to tie her hair into a clumsy ponytail to cool the back of her neck from the thick blanket of hair that covered it.

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Kakashi had summoned his ninken and managed to close the distance between him and Tayuya. The explosion ahead hinted the danger she may be in which made him strive harder. He wasn't sure if he could quite forgive himself if Tayuya had died or something. When he came to the site where the explosion had taken place, Pakkun sniffed around.

"It's a little confusing from here. Tayuya seemed to have turned somewhere here..." Pakkun said.

Kakashi swiftly headed in the direction Pakkun was sniffing at. Bits and strands of pinkish-red hair hung from numerous branches which were tangled on. "This way," He said. Looking at the hair briefly make him think of an image where Tayuya was struggling violently but he dismissed the thought. Such thought only brough unnecessary nervousness that caused hindrance.

Pakkun then indicated that Tayuya's scent was leading back to Konoha, which confused things alittle, but another sudden explosion from the direction made him sure that he shouldn't be sitting there any longer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In her thinking process, she tripped over a unruly loop of vines that protruded from the branch. She tumbled down the trees but managed to land safely even with all the trembling that was involved. It pissed her off somewhat but she didn't show it. Yelling "FUCK" in the woods would only reveal her location.

But it seemed that they already knew where she was, because when Tayuya looked up to the thick canopy of tree branches above, she saw Sakon and Ryoko smirking at her.

"Took you long enough to fall off of the fucking trees," Sakon said. The previous expression of hurt and sorrow was nowhere to be seen and he looked as if he was ready to devour her. "I've decided that I'm going to take you with me whether you like it or not," He said, more fiercely this time, and jumped down.

Tayuya quickly formed her seals and slapped her hand onto the grass. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" She shouted as her hidden Dokis were summoned between her and Sakon at the command of her flute. Only... she didn't have it with her. So what good did this do her?

Absolutely nothing at all.

Well, maybe _some _good since they were distracted but after they confirmed that the demons were not doing a didly _shit _(Which took like two seconds by the way), the chase was on once again.

Tayuya was worn with confusion and her body did not obey her will to run. Instead, her arms and legs gave out due to ignoring the strong need to rest.

"You're so weak," Sakon snapped, venomously.

Tayuya desperately crawled to a tree trunk nearest to her. Supporting her back to the tree, she was able to stand up but only to be grabbed by Sakon.

He pinned her wrists to the tree, crushing her with his weight.

It was a familiar situation as it was years ago, him pinning her down, and she, in the mercy of Sakon's strength. Only, this was a tree, not a bed.

He was so close to her. So close that she could feel his breath on her forehead, so close that the only thing that filled her sight was his eyes, so black and cold, but beautiful nontheless. His scent sent her mind to a wild frenzy and he smiled triumphantly. "I knew all along. That you had wanted me for so long. I'm _this _close to you, stupid," He said, his voice almost sweet. "Come to me. I'm only a kiss away. You have no idea how much we can accomplish together," He whispered.

His voice a sweet seduction... She was going to melt. Kiss...

_Kiss me, Sakon..._

Her heart cried out for those lips. Her body cried out for his and her soul sang in delight as he inched closer to her. She wanted it. Sakon... She wanted him so badly. She wouldn't have to hide anymore in fear of Kimimaro finding out about the secret affair. She had nothing to fear. Leaving things behind for him would be so easy. The craving of the heart... the objections inside her head was deafened by the desire of her soul.

Her hair became loose and fell the green ribbon ever so slowly.

Her eyes followed the ribbon as it softly landed on the ground next to her.

_Kakashi... _She thought. _Save me now... or you never will... I want to be with this man and I will not stop myself. Stop me now or you never will..._

She knew this was wrong. She may even regret it later, but human beings - including shinobi - were only slaves of their hearts after all. _Submit to your desires... Submit..._

She could almost feel his lips. She was going to kiss him with her heart jumping in delight and her head screaming _FUCK NO _all the way.

And then things got out of hand.

First, there was a short and alarmed "Sakon!" From Ryoko and the next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground.

Second, Sakon was suddenly kicked away and someone replaced his exact same spot.

Third, she saw a pair of mismatched eyes before her. "Wake up," He said, his voice filled with worry.

And fourth, he kissed her so warmly and tenderly that she was knocked to a different world.

Then finally, fifth, these words popped into her head. _Hatake Kakashi... Why have you come this far for me? Why did you save me? _


	9. Home

A little short, yes... BUT... I hope you enjoy heh... heh...  
The lyrics in italics below are by HIM btw... an awesome-ass band.

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_I dream of the winter in my heart turning to spring  
As the warmth of summer sunlight dances around me  
And so I drown in the sun..._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

A kiss was an expression of "I want to fuck you," to Tayuya. It always had been.

But as she stood there, as Kakashi kissed her away... that said something else.

_Come back..._ It seemed to say.

When he kissed, there was no sense of greed or a simple hunger to fulfill some type of a lustful deed. It was a simple kiss of longing that was different than just to get inside of her body. It was more like a longing to reach out into her very soul. There was a passion for something other than a scene on the bed and his gentleness proved an emotion that Tayuya could not even comprehend. This kind of kiss was not what she was used to and now when she finally was getting a taste of a typical girl's "fantasy" kiss with the sweetness and the passion both mixed to a sweet caress on her lips, she grew immobile and thought her sense of even having a sense was being slowly shut off.

She was almost sad when he finally pulled away.

"You, son of a bitch!" Sakon yelled, throwing a shuriken at Kakashi.

Kakashi leapt into the air with Tayuya to safely land on a tree. He then swiftly ran back to Konoha.

"Kakashi-"

Kakashi silenced her with his fingers. "Don't talk."

Right... right... they were escaping right now.

Kakashi must have hit the other two in critical areas because they weren't even following them. He held her fragile form in his strong arms as if protecting something so precious to him, and Tayuya... never in her life had anyone treated her in such a way. She was powerful and ruthless. When she felt weak, she was expected to recover promptly before a mission was given to her by Orochimaru. She was expected to carry on by herself, if she wanted to live.

But as she layed there motionlessly, embraced by the man who had just kissed her, a calm soothing peace encircled her and she felt safer there than any place else she had ever been. He was actually carrying her back to her home for _her _sake and no one else's. She wanted to ask him why he was doing this. She wanted to ask him why the people of Konohagakure cared and protected each other more than they did themselves. She wanted to ask him millions of things but just for now, she had to be satisfied with the silence that hovered in the air with the winds whistling in her ear until that sound blended with the silence to become the silence itself.

Konoha was clearly in their view when Kakashi stopped for a breath. He gently placed her on a thick branch and slumped down next to her, breathing hard.

For few moments, silence still hung on the air, but Tayuya was glad when Kakashi broke it. "So... no "thank you" or anything?" He said.

"... Umm..."

"That's fine... are you okay?" He asked.

Tayuya nodded.

Kakashi studied her for a long time. "If I asked you a question... Are you going to answer it?"

Tayuya looked up at him. "Well... what's the question?"

"I asked first. Yes, or no?"

"It depends..."

"That wasn't one of the options... when you're taking an exam and they gie you two choices - true or false - you're not gonna put "it depends" on there, would you?"

"God damn it..." Tayuya muttered. "What? What is the question? I'll fucking answer it..."

Kakashi turned serious again. "What was Sakon to you?"

This question placed a thick cork on her air-pipe. After awhile, she managed to croak out a reply that was not the answer to the question. "Why?"

"Well... there are a lot of reasons why. It isn't pleasant to fight against someone you care about..."

"Do I have to tell you the answer or are you just... asking me?" Tayuya said.

"I'm just asking you."

"..."

Tayuya really wanted to ask a question. _Why did you kiss me? _He could have just shook her or something, or if it was a genjutsu, he could have just dispelled it... any jonin level shinobi should know how to or they should go be a genin again... Unless there was some mistake involved with Kakashi being a jonin... which - again - is highly unlikely judging by how many people know and fear him.

"Konoha... is an amazing place," She blurted out, instead, making Kakashi's gaze snap back to her strangely.

There was a questioning look but he only answered it with "Yes." He probably thought that one question was enough.

There was nothing like surgery or anything involved for Tayuya's recovery but she did have to be stuck in the hospital for two whole days, no exceptions. This made her a little uneasy. What was she supposed to _do _in the two damn days on a hospital bed?

Kakashi kindly carried her all the way into her hospital room.

"This is unnecessary..." Tayuya said.

"With all your energy at low, you can still talk... When does your 'voice energy' die?"

"..."

Kakashi lowered her onto the bed with much caution and care. Tayuya almost expected him to lay himself down as well for a split second but she snapped out of the thought and wondered why she even thought that. Or maybe she wanted him to? Maybe she wanted him to stay with her... just maybe...

"Tayuya," He called, with a serious tone in is voice this time.

Tayuya met his gaze. Was he going to... maybe tell her _why _he did what he did? He'd better...

"Listen to what the hospital says... Only when they're looking of course," He said, then smiled.

That's it?

"Get some rest. You'll be needing it. I am pretty sure I'll be going on a mission soon and who'll watch over my genin for me?"

Tayuya wanted to punch him in the face.

"Bye now," He disappeared.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hokage-sama, Kakashi-sempai just returned with Tayuya. They're in the hospital," Shizune said.

"What? Are they hurt?"

"No... not really... Tayuya seems to be tired out though... She needed rest."

Tsunade sighed in relief then pounded the desk. "What the _hell _possesed that girl to run off like that? If I wasn't any nicer, I would have marked her as missin-nin. Anyway, tell me what hospital room she's staying in. I can't just sit here and wait for her to recover if she happened to find something out."

"No need, she's enjoying her sleep," Kakashi suddenly stood in front of Tsunade.

Tsunade was taken by light surprise. "Don't pop out in front of me like that!"

"Sorry," Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head, but not because it was itchy or anything. "Umm... I thought you might like to know what information that we were able to gain..."

"Spit it out."

So Kakashi told the hokage what Tayuya had told him.

"So that little rat Sakon is gathering the people with cursed seal to activate some jutsu? What's the point of that?" Tsunade said softly to herself... Although is the rumors of them being acquainted with Akatsuki made the reasons _much _more clearer but she didn't know if that was really it.

"Hokage-sama... Rather than gaining more information this time, I think we should just take them out... The reasons are not importatnt compared to the safety of Konoha," Shizune said.

"I wish we could too... but their base is located in some place that I don't even know of. It's either off of the map or not mapped at all. The Sound nin have a special jutsu that transport them from the mainland to their island it seems... With them having the advantage, we can't just attack... and that too is _if _we can find them. Chances are, _they'll_ always find _us_." Kakashi said.

Tsunade sighed in frustration. "Shizune."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"Assemble all jonin and chuunin in Konoha except Sasuke, Anko, and Tayuya. Make this absolutely secret from them. Kakashi, give them an excuse to not wonder about. Substitute the two to watch over your genin or something since Tayuya is sick. You're good at making up excuses."

"Umm... thank you?" Kakashi said, contemplating if that was a real compliment or a read-between-the-lines statement.

"Get going," Tsunade said and they obeyed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Going to sleep was much easier than Tayuya thought.

All she had to do was shut her eyes and the world of dreams unfurled itself before her eyes so suddenly that Tayuya didn't even know that she was even dreaming.

The dream was repetitive.

She was basically floating in mid-air, staring at her former life as a kid, as a sound-nin and as now, a shinobi of Konoha. It seemed have been all a waste.

There really was never a time where she smiled a genuine smile, nor ever cried real tears of joy. There never was a time she let anyone reach inside of her personal space in feelings unless it was meant sexually with particularly two white-haired sound nins. No one really showed her any warmth with the exception of Anko, maybe. There really never was a time that someone promised her anything and the only promise ever made to her was just a way to manipulate her for Orochimaru.

_Is this my life? _Tayuya thought. _Is this seriously the way I am?_

The scene changed to her current life aka life as an assistant of Kakashi.

Oddly... it was funny.

It was funny as hell.

She found herself laughing until she felt like her rib was going to break for laughing so hard.

Kakashi... he was such an irresponsible bastard... for leaving his genin kids with a totally unexperinced, and hot-headed kunoichi who had ill-intent against kids. And to have them master the water-training in a day... Followed by the most ridiculous punishment which she _still _wasn't done with... What on hell did he _do _to the library anyway? It took fucking talent to mess it up _that _bad. But then again... Kakashi seemed to be talented in _all _areas... ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu... he even possesed a powerful dojutsu with his exceptional intelligence... With so many talents, it couldn't hurt to add one more talent right? But then again... he wasn't _always _an irresponsible, strangely talented bastard. Sometimes... he was a responsible... nice... somewhat a warm bastard. It was more subtle than the first impression she had of him but still.. it was there and it was unmistakable. And now that she thought about it... maybe he _did _mean it when he told her that he cared about her earlier on.

Then her dream faded back to where it had all come from and the reality sneaked up on her like a ninja under cover.

She cracked open her eyes and immediately cringed as the bright hospital light beat down as if it wanted to make her blind.

"Hey, she's finally awake!" A strangely familiar voice said.

"Took you long enough, sleepy-head..." Anko's voice...

"Well... since she's awake now... I'm gonna go..."

"Sasuke-kun, she's still not well enough to take care of anyone..."

"Kakashi did fine with us... why can't a one persona watch over these rascals?"

"Shut up, Sasuke. Your teacher asked you to do it and you agreed to,"

"No, he dumped it on me..."

"Tayuya-sensei!" The voice from before called.

When Tayuya was finally some-what used to the light, she opened her eyes to see Anko, Sakura and the three genin looking at her eagerly with Sasuke standing there with a face-full of complaint... which she was not all to ready for... it was kind of strange, having people surround her for reasons other than getting information on a mission or something.

"What are you all doing here?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"What kind of a question is that?" Anko said, tapping Tayuya's forehead hard enough to barely hurt her.

"Ow..."

"We were worried sick about you. Why on hell did you run off like that?" Anko said.

"Yeah, Tayuya-sensei!" Honda exclaimed. "What the hell was that? I should have known... learning from Kakashi-sensei is the worst idea, ever! Look at you! You're _just _like him!"

Tayuya couldn't help but smile. "Well... your _teacher _pissed me off so I was getting the fuck away from him." Not a lie, right?

"Why do you hate Kakashi-sensei so much?" Haruko asked.

"Well... I don't..." She didn't exactly _hate _him... well actually, she didn't... she uh... well she _did _hate him sometimes but... well...

"He speaks highly of you, you know..." Masato added in, sheepishly. He's not known to speak of good qualities in people. "Actually, _quite _highly of you."

Huh? He did?

"What?"

"Well," Said, Haruko. "To tell the truth..." She looked to Honda and Masato nervously. Masato nodded but Honda shook his head vigorously. "After our second day of training, we told Kakashi-sensei that we thought you were scary and well... yeah... but he said that you were a very elite shinobi and it would be an extraordinary event to learn from someone like you... he meant it in a good way too," Haruko said. "And a couple of other things..."

"Like what?"

This time, both the boys remained silent and immobile.

"Nothing," Haruko immediately shut up.

Oh... Well saying nice things about her was one thing but he couldn't have always said nice things...

"See, Kakashi isn't too bad!" Anko said.

"Whatever..." Tayuya muttered.

"Huh? I heard my name..." Kakashi entered the door.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hello, Kakashi-sempai..."

"Well, since he's here now... we can resume on finding a misison," Anko said.

Sasuke walked off and Sakura followed him out after saying "Bye, everyone!"

Anko muttered "Get better soon," and left and the genin followed her all shouting their versions of good byes.

The door closed and they were alone.

"Well," He said. "How are you?"

"Better."

"Good."

Then there was an awkward silence that all people on the face of the planet dreaded no matter what age, race, gender, or even sexual orientation dreaded.

"Umm... you can go too, you know... I'm not a little kid who always needs someone to be with her..." Tayuya said, feeling almost bad for him.

"Oh, I thought you might appreciate it..."

_I do... _"What? Come on, you have better things to do anyway."

Just then someone popped in. "I'm sorry to bust in so suddenly but Hokage-sama asked for you again. Another mission, I think..." It was Genma.

"Yo," Tayuya greeted him.

"Hey," He said.

Kakashi chuckled. "Well... how perfect, then..." He joked as he got up to leave. "Take care of yourself," He said and walked to the door.

"Umm, Kakashi," Tayuya called, just before Kakashi closed the door.

"Mm?"

"Well... thanks... for... everything I guess..."

His eye lit up a bit in surprise. He seemed to want to say something cool in return but, "Don't mention it..." was his only response before the door hid him from her.

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_I've been burning in water and drowning in flame  
To prove you wrong and scare you away  
I admit my defeat and want back home  
In your heart  
Under the rose..._

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Little cheesy to add lyrics yes... but I like it :P..._  
_


	10. Movie Mode

Konoha was taking a defensive phase mode thing which was pretty understandable after what happened to Tayuya. A defense barrier jutsus were set up around the village, and numbers of jonin and chuunin were sent out to retrieve information about what they could and those who stayed behind were also sharply alert, always on edge which in overall was a very good characteristic for a shinobi on duty but a poor characteristic as a shinobi who were off duty. They were pretty much all moody and no one even wanted to go near the majority of the jonin and chuunin population.

These were all - of course - excluding Tayuya.

She was a jonin, yes… but then again, she was training under Kakashi… one of the most random people on the planet.

Well… at least he had a _legit _excuse for keeping her out of this, this time. He told her to cool off her head and that meant _do not get involved _in these things… although it was a bit too difficult to cool off her head when the whole mess was practically about _her _and a _two _other people… in which it meant one-third of the problem was caused by _her _and it was probably more like _one-half _anyway because of what happened after she tried to run away from Konoha…

When one was in a state of self-blaming, it's hard to just leave it and "cool off."

But Kakashi was so adamant about it and Tayuya thought she should listen to him… _for once. _Although most of the time he forced her to do what he wanted her to do anyway. And plus, she was tired. Although she felt the strong need to _do _something about it.

In the past week she had gotten out of the hospital and took care of Kakashi's team, Tayuya was surprisingly more… easy-going. Not as far as _gentle _yet but she was mild enough that the newbie Team Kakashi began to develop a liking for her, and inadvertently, Tayuya began to appreciate their existence.

She knew that force was not good enough to bring out the best in a person but as she watched the ninjalings develop so vigorously in a short week with her specific and almost patient instructions, she could actually feel the truth with her skin.

Because the bumbling Honda managed to cut her arm somehow.

It was a very minor cut but to even touch a jonin during battle - or a training in this case - was a big deal to rapidly developing genin.

Normally, Tayuya would have exploded in anger and would have beat his ass but miraculously, she didn't feel the urge to do so.

Had she changed after all?

"Well, that's it for today, I guess…" Tayuya said, settling on a tree branch with a grace of a cat.

"That was boring…" Honda commented.

"Well… damn right it was… it wouldn't be so fucking hard to master if it wasn't so boring…" Tayuya said.

"Hmm? What's boring? A sensei must never admit that a lesson is boring…" Kakashi said, turning up under the tree somehow.

Tayuya almost fell of the tree.

_God damn that fucking sneakiness!_

The genins echoed her thoughts with words although not so profanely.

"What the hell! When did you get here?" Masato said, slightly surprised.

"Can't you just approach like a normal person?" Haruko whined.

"I thought I did… my ninja mode must be still on…"

"Not funny at all… I think we'll get going. We were going to get some ramen or something…"

"Can your sensei come?" Kakashi asked, hopefully.

"Hell no! The last time you came with us, all of us ended up with a stomachache because you squeezed in wasabi in our food. We're never entering any restaurant with you ever again." Haruko said.

"Oh," He said, understandingly as if he expected that answer. He probably did. "Half of that blame goes for you guys too… how do you not notice?"

"That doesn't matter!"

The genin walked off.

"Wow… you just happen to have a kickass reputation here…" Tayuya said.

Kakashi smiled. "I know."

"Did you really do that?"

"Hm?"

"Put wasabi in their food?"

"Yes."

Tayuya laughed. "What the fuck is your problem?" She asked.

"They need to take precaution with me… I was training them, after all…"

"…… Train how to survive the taste of wasabi in their mouth? They clearly survived considering that they didn't even notice…"

"No, training on detecting foreign movements. Like when I reached for that wasabi, they should've known."

"What food did you order?"

"Sushi."

"How the fuck are they supposed to tell what you were up to, then?!" Tayuya said.

"I don't know… somehow."

"……… You're a fucking dumbass…." She said, but her amused and almost friendly tone contradicted with her rather offensive language.

And Kakashi was pretty used to her talking to him this way.

For some reason, her disrespect for him was not all too bad. It actually felt nice. Everyone else that were trained under him usually called him "sensei" or "sempai," giving him high respect (except his previous Team seven consisting of three _very _disrespectful ex-genin - a.k.a. Naruto, Sasuke, sometimes even Sakura), and following his commands without a question. Never had he trained a single kunoichi with such a dirty mouth and such a rebellious temper.

But she was kind of cute anyway like that… of course as a_ student_… or… she was not exactly a _student… _Well…

"How long are you going to be out?" She asked him.

"Hmm?" He answered as if he was interrupted from a deep thought.

"I said, how long are you going to be leaving those kids to me? They're _your_ students, and I have no clue what type of jutsu they're talented in or anything like that…"

"Just do what you can."

"That doesn't answer my question!" Tayuya said, impatiently. "I know that there is this damn mission thing up to somehow deal with the new Sound Four… but I don't want to sit here and watch kids while they take action… it's my fault after all…"

"No it's not," Kakashi dismissed her self-blame as if he was just correcting a person who had the wrong date on a homework assignment.

"What the hell do you mean, 'no it's not'? Do you think it's _that _simple? Jesus fucking christ, you're so inconsiderate!"

"I'm not being inconsiderate here; you have the wrong idea. _You _are exactly what they want. Putting you up front in this matter is just a bit too much like laying a fresh fish right before a hungry cat's paws. And by the way, the fish is tired and hungry so it can't even splash back to the lake nearby. You are not even in your full-health here. You have to think things through more, Tayuya… You can't just irresponsibly try to be responsible, especially over something that isn't your fault," Kakashi thought he had her convinced.

"My ass, old man!"

Never mind.

"Don't sit here lecturing me! I know you saved me but what the _fuck _do you mean with that fish shit?? I'm _not _a fucking helpless, tired, hungry-ass fish bouncing around! And if I _was _a damn fish, I'd bite the fucking cat's head off!"

Kakashi sighed. "It's for your own good… and mine. I'm going to get in trouble if the medics know that you tried to do something reckless."

"I'm sick of this shit…" Tayuya said, her shoulders slinking down "I'm not a fucking kid anymore."

Kakashi looked over to his whining apprentice. "We know that," He said.

"I'm not used to people treating me like some kind of a fragile porcelain or something."

"But at least you're not a fragile porcelain… far from it, actually…"

Tayuya glared. "Shut up…"

Kakashi kind of expected it… sort of. Instead of coming up with an argument, he pat her head as if he was patting an adored puppy. "It's okay. Things will get better soon…"

The feel of his hands on her head was reassuring. It brought comfort and warmth to her heart although his hands were only on top of layers of strawberry-colored hair slightly damp with sweat from previous training. She liked the feeling a lot.

"Don't touch me," She said, although she didn't really mean it.

Kakashi stopped the patting but didn't remove his hand from her head. There was a moment of hesitation and somewhat like a contemplation before he let his hand drop on the grass.

Although he looked away, Tayuya didn't look away from him. He was a pleasant figure to look at. Sure he was thirty-something - she wasn't sure - but that didn't degrade his beauty any more than that mask did. But she wished he'd remove the damn mask.

He looked so much better without it.

She knew this.

Not many people knew but she did.

How could she not?

But Tayuya caught herself before she drifted off into her stupid little world again.

She was not to think about that…

It wasn't like he had a choice…

Unless he did but how could he have?

It wasn't like he _wanted _to kiss her… it was to release her from a genjutsu… right?

Kakashi suddenly turned his head towards her. "You can have a day off tomorrow if you want to, by the way…" He said, yawning at the end.

"Huh?"

"I guess I'll take what you said into consideration and train the three of them," He turned back to his previous state.

"That was unexpected…"

"I know."

"Are you suddenly drunk?"

"No."

"Are you high?"

"Only if you think so."

"What the fuck??"

"I don't know."

"No, seriously… what the hell is making you say that all of a sudden… I'm confused as hell."

"I have nothing better to do until-" He cut himself short. "I mean… I guess I've decided…" He got up and picked on the leaves of the tree. "That you need a bigger break than I thought… you should get some therapy or something tomorrow… and finish cleaning my library…"

"Why?"

Kakashi shrugged. "See if that changes your pessimism."

"It won't."

"Give it a try. I don't always give out holidays, you know…"

Tayuya sat there, blinking. "You're weird…"

Kakashi shrugged. "I guess I am a bit weird." He stopped twirling the leaves. "Well, since I'm done counseling you, I need to go do something important."

"You do that…"

Kakashi walked away.

Tayuya stayed.

So another day passed pretty uneventfully.

To tell the truth, it was nice.

But when she dug deeper, it bothered her till no end that she was doing absolutely nothing to help her home or _anyone _in that matter. If only she knew where they stayed…

But what was she going to do?

Sakon was much powerful than her.

And it still was not in her heart to kill him.

Her mind accepted the fact that he was clearly her enemy but her heart would not stop hoping that he wouldn't… that he would… maybe…

But that was impossible.

Whether she loved him or not… it was impossible to change him. He gave plenty of hints during the time that they were still comrades to warn her that there was no sense of good into him. There was no kindness in him, and even his loyalty to Orochimaru was only so he could obtain greater power.

_"Hey, Tayuya! Hold this frog."_

_"Why?"_

_"I'm going to cut it in half."_

_"Why the fuck would you do that? It's still alive!"_

_"_That's_ why." He grinned. "I want to see it squirm."_

_"You're a sick fuck…"_

_"Come on, it'll be fun!"_

_"For you, maybe… you weird bitch."_

Tayuya doubted that he was any different. If not, he would be worse. He was _Sakon_, after all…

She got up and walked on to her house. She didn't want to think about it anymore.

* * *

The sun was hung over the peak when Tayuya opened her eyes from her sleep. She stretched like a cat and shook out her hair, cursing it for being greasy as needed. Still muttering profanity, she stepped into the shower where cold water poured on her, in which her language did not get any cleaner but worse as the icy liquid splashed on her bare skin.

But the water warmed up, catching Tayuya in a relaxation phase in which her voice stopped singing sacrilegious things.

After the relaxing thing, she slumped back on her bed.

It was a day off for her but she had nothing to do, really… Anko was on a mission and She wasn't that close to anyone else. She was not so comfortable with Kakashi enough to bother him and plus he was busy training the kids… unless he forgot or something.

She could go over to Tsunade to offer her help but she knew better than to ruin a perfectly good day off by doing that.

Hunger growled in her stomach and much to Tayuya's disappointment, there was absolutely nothing edible in the fridge.

Great… so _shopping _is what she could use right now… She hated shopping but food was necessary to life. Tayuya pulled on her regular outfit and used a hair-drying jutsu. Grabbing her flute, just in case, she Swung her head-protector about her fingers, as she locked her door and exited her house, whistling lightly.

Still whistling, she walked down the steps to get on ground level. There was a poster neatly glued to the wall on each level and it was an advertisement for the new Icha Icha Festival (Made it up --) movie that will hit the theatres at seven PM today.

So… about what Kakashi said about training the genin… it was probably because he didn't have anything else to do to kill time until the movies decided to play the movie.

In other words, it wasn't - at all - because he was worried about _her, _rather he wanted something to do.

Tayuya stopped her whistling at once.

So much for being worried about her… Kakashi only wanted to kill time, that bastard…

Tayuya grumbled in a profane language that only herself would ever be able to understand and then continued doing so for the next reason: why she even cared

Ever since that… kiss she ha been having weird thoughts about him… NO, not like anything that involves Jiraiya's interest or anything but unusual nonetheless. She had dreams that he was holding her one moment and she was as happy as ever, and next time she blinked, he was gone. So she stands up and constantly looks for him. She is afraid to speak out to call his name because she is afraid that he could hear her. Strange to be looking for someone with fear that they'd find _you… _It was confusing and somewhat hellish. What did she have to be afraid anyway? So what if he heard her? Why was the Tayuya in the dream so damn… _stupid_? Dreams like that usually captures any girls' interest especially if it was a reoccurring dream and _especially _especially when it was with a person whom you know pretty well… But not well enough to call them your friend or anything more than acquaintances.

She was out of her apartment building and lost sense of where she was walking to.

Oh yeah… the grocery store…

Trying to take her mind off of useless things, she began making mental lists of what she might need to keep her fridge and belly full for a week.

_Let's see… I need eggs, milk, probably some rice, cereal? Snacks and shit, yogurt cuz they're damn good, uhh… fish, squid…_

"Tayuya-sensei!"

Tayuya looked up to see Haruko running up to her. "What are you doing out here? What about your training?"

"Huh?" Haruko sighed. "He didn't show up. We're pretty used to it. But what happened to you? I thought Kakashi-sensei would be with you."

"Why on hell would he be with me? And he gave me a day off… God damn that man! So much for a fucking day off… Anyway, you still up for training?" Tayuya asked.

"Not really… do we have to?"

"Not really… I'm busy right now."

"That's good…"

"What do you mean, _that's good_? You're suppose to train like hell if you want to be a ninja," Tayuya said, although she was relieved that Haruko was nothing like Masato who was all about training to become better.

Haruko, who did not want to train slipped away.

Tayuya continued on to her destination, casually greeting familiar faces and stopping for a brief chat with more familiar ones. Everyone seemed to be in such a good mood today.

But Tayuya saw no jounins at all with majority of chuunins disappeared from the streets as well.

She hoped that it was a coincidence that she only saw some chuunins and mostly genins and just villagers because if all jounins were gone… that usually meant something.

_Please don't let it mean anything… I hate being left out because of… my past…_

At that very moment, something flashed by the walls and made Tayuya jump.

She frantically looked around, and readied her kunai.

The genins and the towns people looked at her strangely.

Tayuya relazed a bit.

Maybe she was seeing things… _although _the people here were genin and normal people. If she had to trust an instict here, it would have to be her own. But there was on news of a strange person arriving. The gates people would have notified the hokage and the whole town by now.

Tayuya shook it off and dismissed the feeling.

She was supposed to be relaxing today.

But throughout the whole day, she sensed strange presence around her and she tried hardest to stay around crowds of people. With people, the discomfort eased a bit although it didn't completely disappear.

The second time she felt it, she ignored it.

The third time, she threw a kunai at the general direction and scared the living piss out of a freaking dog named Akamaru and had to deal with Kiba's bitching.

The fourth time, she dismissed it again.

The fifth time, she went up the hokage tower to Tsunade, to ask where all the jounins have went to.

"The jounins are out scouting. _You _will not be joining them of course," Tsunade accented the last part very clearly in a way that meant you'd-better-not-or-I'll-skin-you type of way.

"I won't, gosh…" Tayuya mumbled as she exited her office.

Was she really just over-reacting?

Tayuya had nothing better to do as she watched the sun set over the horizon. That was when she remembered the bold poster of _Icha Icha Festival _on her apartment wall.

No, she was not in the mood watch people get knocked up at this moment. But she decided to watch a movie. Something _other _than perverted shit.

She entered the theatre to see a pimply kid sitting there, bored out of his mind. When he saw Tayuya, he eyed her with general disinterest. "Can I help you?" He said with a voice that border lined a boys and a man, cracking at appropriate places.

Tayuya looked up at the playing menu screen.

There were many chick flicks, a horror movie, Icha Icha Festival, Some violence movie…

"Fucking get me one for something violent," Tayuya said.

"Eh?" The kid's eyes suddenly widened at the burst of sudden dirty language.

"Just give me something!"

"Umm… Icha Icha Festiv-"

"I said, violenceAre you fucking deaf or something?"

"No… here you go… uhh…"

Tayuya payed the boy and left him gawking at her awkwardly. She briefly heard him distinctly whisper to a friend at the next stand, "Gosh, some moody lady trying to get over a break-up or something… I bet she got dumped…"

_Fucking douche bag…_

She entered the theatre and sat on a far back seat. It was almost full with love-struck couples burrowing on each other's arms.

She sighed.

Why was she here?

When the movie started to play, Tayuya was going to go back out to the ticket stand to beat the kid to a bloody pulp for what she paid for was not the violence she mildly wanted to see but a fucking chick-flick.

She looked down at her ticket to verify what the name of this god damned chick-flick was.

_Taming Tomoko: Tomoko is a tomboyish girl that does not believe in love but that all changes when the young, gorgeous gentleman Kenta appears in her life… blah blah blah…_

No wonder so many couples were here…

Fucking assholes…

The story line was a basic love-line format story. A kind-hearted but financially difficult girl, a rich-ass boy, met in an unusual way as usual. All five thousand other movies like these had unusual meeting scenes such as spilling coffee on the girl's blouse, a nerdy girl dropping books or documents, or something. This one was nothing usual. The girl accidentally hit the guy, giving him a black eye, and like a typical romance movie, they hate each other… Well, at least the girl does. Also, in this movie the guy is actually a perfect gentleman instead of a riding dirty bad boy. Well, it was still so typical… it _was _a chick-flick, right?

The story progressed on.

Tomoko needs someone to teach her how to play a guitar for a concert she volunteered for her brother but she has no idea in hell how to play. She grudgingly runs to Kenta who is a guitar genius and asks him to teach her at the cost of anything.

Kenta offers for free.

Tomoko snarls violently and demands him to set a price so she it doesn't look like he's just pitying her, again the main character has serious pride issues. After series of deep thought, he decides that she could be a cook for him or something since he's sick of dining out since he lives all alone. Tomoko - again - grudgingly agrees to this term. This is how their relationship builds. There are events that happen and random fluffs of a blackout, or twisting an ankle, or being trapped in a suddenly defunct elevator together (Kenta has an apartment).

Then Tomoko who is financially ill is chased by heartless people that she owes money to in which - like all romantic movies - a violent gang people who threatens her life and those around her. They try to kidnap her but Kenta who just _happened _to pass by sees this and Kenta who just _happened _to be a street-fighting master as well as a guitar master kicks the shit out of them with some bruises and scars that Tomoko offers to take care of in her house. Tomoko's house is broken down and poor but Kenta doesn't say anything although he feels bad.

Then share a kiss when Tomoko decides to put ointment on Kenta's bleeding lips (how typical). After they break off, Kenta hurriedly leaves and Tomoko is dazed.

Tomoko is confused beyond reason while Kenta dodges the subject.

In other words it was a mistake.

Now every part of this movie with the exception of some details seemed to be some kind of a plagiarized work from a recent excerpt of a certain red-haired kunoichi who just happened to be sitting in the theatre hoping to recover from the very similar occasion.

Then the time comes for Tomoko's brother's concert - which was completely forgotten in the plotline up to this point - and she no longer has the need to cook for him. And he fires her after Tomoko wants a talk with him about the accidental kiss.

Tomoko is angry and pledges to never see him again.

She cries for the first time in many years and get drunk not knowing why she is so damn upset.

Then more angsty shit happens and Tomoko suddenly is kidnapped by the gang people that are no longer infuriated with just her but also with Kenta. Black mailing begins and as always, Kenta makes it in a nick of time in a old, abandoned warehouse.

Tomoko is tied up, and Kenta has to face endless amounts of bastards who are in the gang with the evil-looking boss guy sits there, being happy. Kenta is kicking ass until they bring on random wooden clubs which just _happened _to be conveniently laying there according to the numbers of gang members and none for Kenta. Kenta is beaten with Tomoko screaming at them to stop and this continues until the police comes.

Then the movie pretty much ends with confession of love and the gangs being arrested.

They marry and what not and Tomoko is pregnant or something.

The people in the theatre began to leave as the credits and a song began to roll out to mark the end of the typical love story.

Tayuya sat there still.

It wasn't like this was the first romance movie that she'd ever watched yet something about the story… the seemingly _typical _story dug its claws inside of her. She couldn't pin-point it but it was true and she had to bury her mind in it on her way home.

Who was Kakashi to her?

And really… _why _was she so confused about this whole thing?

She shouldn't have watched the movie.

It kept on making her think of possibilities that were not there and never there to begin with.

When she returned home, the night was dark.

The fucking movie was long as hell.

She entered the apartment building with the eerie feeling of someone watching her returning to her with the strength sevenfold than it was on the daylight around people. She took two steps at a time to her house in almost a running speed. When she finally arrived at her door, she leaned by it and sighed.

What stupid imagination…

She turned her back around to face the door and took out her key to unlock it. But she regretted doing so immediately.

"You fail as a jounin," A voice all too familiar said.

Tayuya felt her lungs forming into a tight knot.

"I'm sure you've sensed me all day long. Knowing that and still turning your back to me was one or both of these two things: you are stupid beyond reasons or you just really want to come back to me."

Tayuya flipped around to face him. "Sakon…"

He grinned. It was too dark to make out exact shapes but she could at least tell that much.

"You are such a stupid bitch… I don't even know how to describe it. But now you have no choice. Come with me."

"… No…"

"Too bad." He said and before Tayuya could even blink, a punch came on her stomach so fast and so hard, she fell forward hopelessly.

_But I don't owe you any debt… _Was the only thing her mind mumbled out before her consciousness left her.

* * *

Note: The _typical _story above is based on Korean dramas that annoy me... so if you were a little confused, I'm sorry... but Urgh Korean dramas _do _get annoying... Well, sorry for the late update... hehe I'll try to be on time next time. Thanks, people! 


	11. One Reaching, One Waiting

A/N: This story will end in about two or three more chapters. Thank you, everyone!

* * *

Why on earth was she back? 

She tried to run away, she tried to hide, she tried to relax but now she was just back to where she had started. Struggling against Sakon was no use and it wasn't as if she had enough consciousness to think of a plot anyway. The half of what is left of the conscious was no use to her, because it was just a claw of panic trying to cling onto a glass wall.

Despair.

Anger

And fear.

None of the above are a pleasant condition to be in, yet Tayuya was currently experiencing a chaotic fusion of all of the above. And it isn't a mixture of those emotions. It was a _fusion_, an utter solution… No percent composition, but a full-blow 100 of all three. But as turbulent as her insides were, her outside body didn't move a muscle as it continued to lay there limp as Sakon carried her further and further away from the place she wanted to be.

In fact, she'd rather be anywhere but here.

Apparently, it didn't matter to anyone including her unconscious body where she'd rather be.

She still had so many things to do, back home…

She had to pick up her groceries off of the doorstep or someone might steal it. Why that even mattered now, she didn't know but that was the first thing that came into mind. She needed to clean out her flute. Which is a bit more important. She also needed to finish Kakashi's freaking library filled with shit. So maybe that _was _on her list of "to do" things after all.

"Hey, Sakon…" Ryoko's voice said. While Tayuya was wondering when she got here, Ryoko said, "How about a break?"

"Yeah…" He said, and came to a swift halt. He let Tayuya go - literally - and Tayuya fell down head-first not so gently. "Go stand watch incase someone's following."

Ryoko left.

Tayuya was always told that she was a skinny girl but she changed her mind when her weight shifted to her skull as it hit the ground. She cracked her eyes open.

It was still dark with half moon dimly lighting the black sky.

"Yo." Sakon said.

Tayuya looked up to him, sneering at her helplessness. "Where are you taking me?" She asked, trying to hide the pain that coursed through her body.

"Somewhere where you're needed, of course."

"That… doesn't… answer my… fucking question," Tayuaya said softly, although it should have been a lot more louder and angrier if she was in such an unsightly state.

Sakon's sneer just got bigger as he looked down at her. "Shame," He said. "But there will never be any more moments where _I _would have to answer to _you_, my dear friend. He bent down to touch her cheeks.

Tayuya was contemplating whether to like this feeling or not when Sakon's other hand squeezed her right breast with such force, that she had to bite back a scream.

"However, that means you ask no questions and just obey," He said.

"Get your fucking hands off of me!" Tayuya kicked at him, but it missed and he only squeezed harder. Tayuya yelped in agony this time as she groped her hands around his forearms to try to yank it off. But it was a man's iron grip against a woman's desperate plea. Tayuya didn't want to give in but what hurts hurts and she felt as if she was going to pass out if he didn't let go.

"Does it hurt?" He asked with a cruel grin on his face.

Like he did on that one day when he…

"Stop it, you… fucking sc- AHH!" A scream tore out of her lips as he used the same hand to shove her to the trunk of a tree.

Yet he still did not let go. "Want me to let go?"

Tayuya looked at him.

He tightened his grip, causing her to scream. "Looking at me doesn't answer my question, bitch," He said then groped her other one. "I don't think you understand the situation. When I ask you a question, you give me the answer you want me to hear or I'll just torture you until you do."

"You son of a bitch!"

"What was that?" He said as he squeezed both of her breasts so hard that she thought it was going to explode into pieces.

A raw scream pierced out of her in a volume that scared even herself.

"Beg me to stop," Sakon said, licking his lips.

"S - Stop…"

"I said _beg _me."

"Please…"

"Give me an alternative."

"Wh - What?"

"Since I don't want to stop, I'll do something else."

"No!"

"Then I should just continue this," He said as he began to emphasize the pain by slowly massaging both of them with his current strength, which was more unbearable.

"Stop! Please!" Tayuya screamed.

He suddenly let go, and Tayuya fell to the floor.

"You don't want me ever to treat you like that again, do you?"

Tayuya said nothing.

"Answer me, you stupid bitch!!" He said as he kicked her stomach.

She coughed up what felt like blood. "NO!" She yelped out.

"That's what I thought. Well, I think I've had my fun. And I don't think I want to see you anymore for now," He turned his head around. "Ryoko!" He called.

As if she knew she was going to be called after a certain abuse, she showed up instantly.

Sakon carelessly lifted Tayuya up by her vest collars just before chucking her across the branches toward Ryoko, who caught her like a sack of potatoes. "I don't want to carry that piece of shit anymore. You take it from here."

It was obvious that Ryoko hadn't expected this since she began to grumble under her breath. Also, it was quite obvious that Ryoko did not like Tayuya much either as she simply slung her over her shoulder.

Tayuya thought, for the whole trip, that she was going to die in both pain and humiliation.

* * *

If this was some kind of a joke, it wasn't all that funny.

If it was a payback for him missing out on training sessions, it was too harsh.

But since the words were coming out of a certain down-to-earth, bad-tempered, and currently _very _ticked female hokage, Kakashi dismissed the two complaints.

Tayuya was taken… again.

He remained motionless for a few moments, digesting all that he's heard in the last five-seconds. The meditation was brutally broken the same moment the hokage's desk snapped in half.

"There is no time to think, Kakashi! _Go _and _get _her! What the hell is _wrong _with you?! I didn't bring you here to _think_!"

"Other than the fact that if shinobi ceased to think, then none of us would be living and breathing now and-"

If looks would kill, Kakashi would have been crucified and staked at the same time as Tsunade's death-glare broke off his words. "Do… I.. look… like… I'm fucking around?" She asked, her voice unusually soft.

It wasn't his fault… He lost too much focus to be serious at this moment. It hadn't quite hit him yet. The fact Tsunade laid out so clearly, that it was difficult as hell to make out. But then again, he knew that when Tsunade's voice gets _this _soft after breaking her desk in two, there was clearly something wrong, and pretty soon, Kakashi would share a similarity with the desk which would be to be no longer functional. "I understand. I'll go right away," He said, and ran out fast as possible.

He gripped his nose bridge with his thumb and index finger in an attempt to calm himself.

He summoned his ninken and they ran off in their own way to help their master.

He too began his search but a mix of worry and panic made concentrating rather difficult.

He searched for a trace of clue that may help him find her. _Always kidnapped like this… and I always have to save your butt… Where does all your aggressiveness go when the kidnappers come, huh? _He thought with a deep sigh.

Of course he had three former apprentices who were just as unstable with one with a similar curse that Tayuya had, one with a demonic kyuubi inside him and the other with a monster-like strength, but at least they'd never get kidnapped if not, just walk right into trouble. The point was though, that them three could take care of themselves, or he was always there to get them out of trouble since they were under his care. Now that the three of them grew up to be impressive shinobi, they were each on their own ways, fully able to protect themselves at need, and there really was no reason to fear that any harm would come to any of the three. Tayuya however, was placed under a completely different situation. Although he was to be a mentor for her, she was already an adult, a jonin, when she came under him. Although she had the skill of being a jonin, when it came to… _not _being kidnapped, she… just wasn't very good.

Chasing enemies because of a careless (or something) kunoichi didn't exactly fit his job description, and the rank of this mission had not been decided, yet here he was, flying through the forest with his sharingan serving as a headlight and a detector for enemies.

It wasn't like he was going to be paid for completing this mission but there was something about completing this mission that was hundreds of times more worthy than getting his paycheck… although that would be nice. No.

He was in this so he could save a fellow ninja, his student, his… well… _student _or something like that. Well, more than just a student… also his librarian… sort of. And… well…

Pakkun landed right in front of him. "Yo," said the wrinkled mutt.

"Find something?" Kakashi asked.

"I can smell her shampoo," Pakkun said.

Kakashi raised his eyebrows.

"Well, something like that…" The dog trailed off. "Let's go," He said before Kakashi could say anything.

Kakashi too decided that finding Tayuya was pretty important right now, more so than teasing his shampoo-sniffing bulldog looking thing.

* * *

It didn't make a whole lot of sense for such thoughts to pass Tayuya's mind at such a time as this. Maybe it was because her brain was tired of wandering between the borderlines of consciousness and unconsciousness and finally decided to settle onto something pretty random but important. Something that was beyond her but also something that Tayuya couldn't let go of. Something that was so overrated and ideal that it was almost stupid.

A little something called love.

There was no sense in trying to understand why such a subject would suddenly pop up in the middle of dying or somewhat close to it. All she could do now was to lay there quietly as the person who she thought she had once loved spoke to another girl about what to do with Tayuya. A rather an unpleasant experience, really…

She was close to hating Sakon. It happened so quickly.

After all the time she thought that she's loved him… It was so hard to trust in what you believed. Because it all fell down in the end so worthlessly. The love she believes that would always be there shattered away. Sure, he'd always treated her this way.

He'd always mock her, tease her, taunt her, toy with her, fuck her…

And yet she always thought she loved him.

Was it because of the fact that Kimimaro infinitely abused her more than Sakon had? Was it because her fear of Kimimaro caused her to seek comfort in Sakon's way of cruelty?

It wasn't like she knew the answer.

In this pained state, in this state so painful that she could not even cry, she thought of Kakashi who always happened to save her ass.

Was he going to save her this time too?

If he was, she swore that she'd be the one to kiss _him _this time.

He was the only one she could account for. He was the only one who could bring her back. He was the only one who could find happiness for her.

Why she suddenly came to realize this, she did not know.

But what she knew, she knew.

He was the only one she knew she could wait for.


End file.
